There are many great tools available that can help us grow in our Catholic faith.   In the last ten to fifteen years there has been a virtual explosion of orthodox Catholic media in print, on the radio and television airwaves, and on-line. Even with all that is quickly accessible at the touch of a remote control or the click of a mouse, as a national speaker and syndicated Catholic talk show host, I still find there are a large number of Catholics who shy away from reading Church documents. They are eager to learn about or continue to grow in their faith but at the same time seem to feel that they are unqualified or not prepared to read what comes out of  the Vatican, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, or even their own diocese.  

Say the word “encyclical,” for example, and the knee-jerk reaction, even among many strong Catholics, is to head for the hills – so to speak.  I recently had one listener, following the release of Pope Benedict’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), e-mail me asking “Do you actually think I can read a papal encyclical?” It was as if she felt she had to have some sort of permission, special degree, or stamp of approval to read the beautiful words that, as Pope Benedict himself said in the paper, were meant for Bishops, priests, deacons, men and women religious, the LAY FAITHFUL, and all people of good will.  (Emphasis mine)

As a cradle Catholic, it’s my own experience that some of this attitude comes from a healthy respect for Church hierarchy.  We accept what the Church teaches because we trust that the Pope, and other leaders passing on the teachings, is led by the Holy Spirit through Apostolic succession and the Sacrament of Holy Orders. So, we don’t bother to read those teachings or letters and we never think of going directly to the source – as in the Church.  And that’s where the problems can sometimes arise. 

We may hear about the latest encyclical or Bishop’s letter from our local paper or daily television news programs and we accept the media spin, which in many cases is not only incomplete and inaccurate, but is giving the viewer, or the reader, a very biased view of what the Pope or the Church is saying about any given topic. Speaking from the experience of someone who spent more than two decades in the media as a working journalist and anchor woman, I can tell you that even the most experienced reporters don’t have the time or the support needed to report on religious issues effectively.  Combine deadline issues with a media that, by its own admission in survey after survey, disagrees with just about every core teaching of the Catholic Church and you have a recipe for a catechetical disaster. 

I spend a great deal of my time on the air, and on-line, correcting the secular media’s mistakes while also encouraging Catholics to be willing to do a little homework and check out what the Church  really says instead of buying into what the press is claiming the Church says.  I believe that if we could have a one-on-one conversation with Pope Benedict, that the Vicar of Christ himself would tell us that while respect for authority, and the acceptance of Church dogma and doctrine are absolutely necessary to be a Catholic in good standing, blind obedience and/or willful ignorance out of fear, insecurity, or laziness are completely different matters, ones for which we will be held accountable.  It is our responsibility to learn about God and apply not only faith but reason, as well. 

John Paul II taught us that faith and reason are, after all, the two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.  I don’t need to go into details about the crisis that occurred in the Church post Vatican II. Much of the breakdown was due to Catholics and  the “8^th Sacrament” of Holy Osmosis, as Catholic Answers founder and apologist, Carl Keating would say is the idea that we could appreciate our faith simply by  a blind obedience of being told the what but not the why. 

And that is why books such as Cheryl Dickow’s Mary- Ever Virgin, Full of Grace: A Study of Papal Encyclicals on Mary are so important.  This beautiful publication should be at the top of the list of those “many great tools” available to Catholics that I mentioned earlier; tools for Catholics who take their faith growth and knowledge seriously.

My hope is that those who read Cheryl’s papal study on Mary will have the same passion that Cheryl and I do for all things Catholic, especially writings from the Holy Fathers.  The way I see it, this book is particularly important for Catholic women.  We have been fed so many lies from our culture concerning so called “freedom” that when studying Mary through papal documents that span over one hundred years we discover true “freedom” as modeled by Mary’s fiat. Mary shows us that it is only when we say “yes” to God that we are truly free.

While feminism brought us many needed changes and advances in terms of opportunities, it also took a radical turn to the left leading to a push for women to act like men behaving badly. As pro-life activist and Catholic speaker Helen Alvare explained to the 2008 Vatican Women’s Congress: Feminism drew upon the worst features of male behavior for its prescriptions. Thus was the feminist woman urged to be a sexually adventurous, marriage and children spurning, money and career driven creature.  Feminism urged women to imitate the male version of original sin – domination – to attain equality and happiness.

For women, the encyclicals on Mary provide powerful insights concerning our greatest intercessor in the Communion of Saints, and one of our greatest witnesses: the Blessed Mother. While the world prescription for happiness includes aggressiveness, selfishness, and domination, Mary shows us that, as John Paul II explained, we don’t find ourselves until we lose ourselves in Christ. It’s only in selflessness and submission to God’s will that we learn our true calling or vocation.  Our Blessed Mother also gave us examples of how to build on our relationship with God. We read in Scripture of her “pondering” things in her heart and how she and St. Joseph were “amazed“ about what was being said about Jesus.  Countless women in these frenetic times have lost the ability to ponder; to really stop or at least slow down even for a few minutes, to pray and contemplate.  Understanding, through the Papal encyclicals on Mary, how the Blessed Mother lived, and how she intercedes for us, can make a major difference in our daily lives.

Mary- Ever Virgin, Full of Grace: A Study of Papal Encyclicals on Mary provides the reader with a dozen Marian encyclicals reprinted in their entirety – with Vatican approval. No searching, printing, or downloading is needed, just an open heart and mind as to what you might be able to learn from some of the greatest Catholic teachers; Pope Leo XIII, Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, and John Paul II.  The book also provides Scriptural references, study questions, and visual images that help lead to further prayer and contemplation. 

So no more excuses. You can and should be reading Papal encyclicals.  They are absolute blessings filled with gems that can jump start your faith life or deepen it in ways unimagined.  The fact that we have a talented, contemporary writer and educator such as Cheryl Dickow who uses her communication and teaching skills to guide us smoothly through these writings is just icing on an already irresistible cake. 

As we say in Italian, Buon Appetito!

The 2008 election was, to many Catholics and other social conservatives, a defeat of significance. Barak Obama’s election, as well as the Democratic takeover of the congressional houses, represented to many a stunning success of secular humanism and a defeat of the pro-life values that form the core of much Catholic support for the Republican Party. The fact that so few people seemed to care that Obama’s election promised the continuation of Supreme Court support for Roe v. Wad e for the next twenty to thirty years only added salt to the wound. High emotions, then, dominate as Catholics look to articulate or listen for a political philosophy relevant to our particular situation: a philosophy that can offer a robust alternative to secular humanism and its “progressive” agenda.

At the same time, a largely leaderless Republican Party has itself experienced a period of soul-searching. Perhaps as a credit to the novel Constitutional Puritanism of Ron Paul, a new wave of political rhetoric that hearkens back to just before the American Revolutionary War has gained a following. At first, this movement looked to be no more than a scattering of “Tea Party” protests across the country. However, as news breaks of massive federal deficits and a Democratic government seemingly content to ram through new spending, including an unpopular “reform” of healthcare, many people feel as though something about our current administration has to change. Something has gone wrong, enough is enough, and perhaps if we retrace our steps back to the original documents on which our political structure is based, we may find a solution. If this is the direction popular sentiment is headed, books like political pundit Glenn Beck’s Common Sense (which, as the subtitle acknowledges, is “Inspired by Thomas Paine”) and Ron Paul’s own The Revolution: A Manifesto may represent a political movement with potential for growth. In addition to merely calling for a sort of Constitutional Originalism, it seems to me that there is something a little ominous in this pre-Revolutionary rhetoric. In particular, it seems to suggest the possibility (or even the merit) of a violent overthrow of the United States government if no more peaceful means for substantial change can be employed. If so, what should Catholics think about this?

Pope Pius IX looks to have quashed revolutionary sentiments entirely in rejecting the thought that “It is lawful to withhold obedience to legitimate rulers, indeed even to rebel.” This was listed as one of many modern errors in his famous Syllabus . In Etsi multa luctuosa , Pope Pius IX further explained that the Church teaches that the faithful should “inviolably keep [obedience] to the supreme princes and their laws insofar as they are secular” however the Church “has restricted this fear of princes to evil works, plainly excluding the same [fear of punishment] from the observance of the divine law”. That is to say, rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s involves obedience to the secular laws of the land insofar as they do not violate our more fundamental obligation to give to God what is God’s. If the State calls us to sin, we may not obey. In all other respects, we are to submit to those who rule over us.

In response, one who would seek to defend the legitimacy of rebellion might draw upon the qualifier “legitimate” –- arguing that it is wrong to disobey or even to rebel against legitimate authority, but it is an open question whether our current government is indeed legitimate (or will continue to be so in the future). The Revolutionary War that gave birth to this nation was justified along similar lines. The founders argued in the Declaration of Independence that people posses a ‘right to revolution’ in certain circumstances. Thus,

“[T]o secure these rights [of Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government […].”

As the power to legitimately rule a people derives from the consent of the people, so the thinking goes, then it is perfectly legitimate for these same people to deny consent when the government deprives people of their rights. If the ruler continues to hold office after the consent of the governed has been denied and even defends his position with force, the argument continues, then he is no better than a usurper of power and can be justly taken out of a position of authority by the people, in whom all power ultimately resides.

This pattern of argument must be rejected by the faithful Catholic. In his encyclical Diuturnum , Pope Leo XIII writes plainly:

“Indeed, very many men of more recent times, walking in the footsteps of those who in a former age assumed to themselves the name of philosophers, say that all power comes from the people; so that those who exercise it in the State do so not as their own, but as delegated to them by the people, and that, by this rule, it can be revoked by the will of the very people by whom it was delegated. But from these, Catholics dissent, who affirm that the right to rule is from God, as from a natural and necessary principle.”

Pope Leo XIII continues that democracy is a legitimate means to select such a ruler, provided certain conditions are satisfied, but once a leader is justly selected power is not derived from below, so to speak, but is granted to him by God. Consequently, Pope Leo argues, the ruler

“will by that very reason immediately acquire a dignity greater than human […] Whence it will behoove citizens to submit themselves and to be obedient to rulers, as to God, not so much through fear of punishment as through respect for their majesty; nor for the sake of pleasing, but through conscience, as doing their duty. And by this means authority will remain far more firmly seated in its place. For the citizens, perceiving the force of this duty, would necessarily avoid dishonesty and contumacy, because they must be persuaded that they who resist State authority resist the divine will; that they who refuse honor to rulers refuse it to God Himself.”

The entire encyclical is worth reading in full, but these selections should put to a definitive end any idea among Catholics that a repeat of our revolutionary war may be justified. This becomes even clearer when we take seriously the fact that our initial Revolutionary War was illegitimate and cooperation with it immoral; although patriotic feelings often cloud this plain fact, the “social contract” justification for revolutionary war espoused in the Declaration of Independence was seriously flawed. The bloodshed that followed from it was blood shed in a deplorably immoral way. Any thought of repeating this war must be vehemently rejected among Catholics as engaging in serious sin.

It is admittedly very difficult to acknowledge, but Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress (as well as the justices on the Supreme Court) have power because God has granted power to them. Not only should they not be challenged insofar as they have power, but (as Pope Leo explained) they should in fact be esteemed and honored: possessing a dignity and majesty that is not merely human, but comes from God. I pray all Catholics are reminded of these facts as anger over the deficit and healthcare “reform” bill mounts, and the revolutionary rhetoric continues to heat up. We are called to respect and honor those who rule over us, and to submit to them unless they command us to sin.