World Youth Day–Money and Manna
Pope Benedict XVI has just returned to Italy from Spain, where he led hundreds of thousands of young people in Madrid’s celebration of World Youth Day.
The event was not without grumbling. The cost of World Youth Day–and the scale of its production–struck some people as too extravagant, given the distressing economic situation in Spain and elsewhere. A controversy sparked over whether the event was subsidized too greatly by the Spanish taxpayers. Some priests protested WYD as being inconsistent with the social justice teachings of the church. The church responded that WYD was funded mainly by corporate sponsors and the participants themselves. Further questions were raised about what tax breaks these sponsors received.
One could also justifiably suspect that kids who were going to WYD from overseas were relatively affluent. Maybe some trips were subsidized. But one could also raise the question whether subsidizing tickets, say, from Washington DC to Madrid was the best use of diocesan funds.
More broadly, though, the controversy strikes me as one instance of a tension that is always present in Catholic thought–how do we reconcile our individual and collective obligations to the poor with other aspects of our vocation or life, including our vocation to proclaim the Gospel?
We see the complaint periodically about the Vatican–some people say that it should sell the art in the Sistine Chapel and give the proceeds to the poor.
But at least WYD and the Sistine Chapel are intended to raise hearts and mind toward God. Many of us spend money on things that aren’t intended to do that, at least directly. If we’re going to criticize the Church for failing to “sell all her possessions and give them to the poor,” we have at the same time to look at our own lives. We need to remove the dollar signs in our own eyes even as we try to remove them from the eyes of others.
St. Thomas Aquinas attempted to reconcile some of the tensions involved by saying that people ordinarily could maintain their “necessities”–which included the usual and customary trappings of their station in life–but that they needed to give generously out of the excess. The Gospel did not require a squire to become a pauper. His approach has been criticized by some modern writers who think it does not give due account to the demands of social justice.
On the one hand, Aquinas’s account can let people off the hook too easily. I once asked some law students in a “Mercy and Justice” class to whom I assigned the Aquinas material to price out what the “necessities” of their expected station eight years out would be. The number was an annual salaray well into the six figures. And I didn’t disagree. Partners at big-city law firms don’t generally by their suits at Sears.
On the other hand, Aquinas’s account also presses people to distinguish between necessities and superfluities–and that realistic distinction may help move people with money to think about it using it for other people. You may need a Brooks Brothers suit as a partner in a law firm, but you don’t need a bespoke suit. Because his approach is realistic, it may be more effective–it gives people a choice between doing nothing and radically renouncing worldly goods.
Is there a better way to think about these matters? What do you think?
How about seeing it two ways:
1)how it effected the youth and participants there(surely a happy faith experience for most.,)
but
2)how did it effect Spain and the rest of the world: the Pope’s arrival and meeting with officials got lots of play there but his Mass and sermon far less.
I saw little coverage in the press here.
The tension Cathy speaks of has to do with great rumblings among Spanish young people with their awful economic picture and mistrust of corruption they perceive there.
the Pope’s visit was just another occasion to protest that condition.
Instead of the incapsulated view of looking at matters Catholic in positive or negative terms, shouldn’t the apppreciation be of how effective was WTD not only for the youth but the entire Catholic communityin general and the people of Spain in particular?
I’ve read that 300 M dollars will be added to Madrid’s economy by WYD, and that money will recycle. So the whole event hekped the Madrid poor. Also, it seems that some kids’ trips were financed by their parishes or high schools which raised the money for them to go. They weren’t all affluent by any means.
It seems to me that having an international event like this for young people will make them more aware when they are old that this is one Earth, and we’re all inter-dependent. That is a very important lesson for them to learn first hand. Long-term it’s good for the poor too.
As to spending money on non-necessary trips when some people are hungry, I think before deciding we have to look at exactly what the economic consequences of selling all our goods would be — would that help the poor people? Well, for a while it would, but it would also destroy. the economic system and in a rather short time would just replenish the number of poor people.
Jesus often exaggerated to make His points. I daresay that’s why He said to go sell everything and give it to the poor.
This doesn’t give any guidelines for how much to give of our treasure, of course. But I think we have to guard against exaggerating what must be done. Still, when the poor are starving, I think we are obliged to give more than usual. For instance, I think, we must give to the Somalians now. This doesn’t require everyone to give everything, but if everyone gave noticeably, I daresay the problem would be well on its way to being solved, though I don’t see how we can stop the war there that is the cause of the poverty.
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We’ll always have among us those who know the cost of everything, the value of nothing.
The movement to reduce the Church to a charity is no doubt well meant, but it is, I think, essentially a movement towards a rigid secularisation meant to please only one fairly narrow group who, perhaps ironically, are unlikely to be poor themselves.
WYD has become political/ecclesiastical propaganda. If these events were successful they would generate vocations which they decidedly do not. The proof is in the pudding. Clear and simple.
As to poverty the words of Jesus are clear not exaggerated. It is the scaling down of his message that has marked an empire hierarchy. Historically poor youth migrated to the priesthood and religious life to better their lot. I remember seminarians saying that they ate and lived better in the seminary than at home.
The eminent point is by selling everything one demonstrates her spiritual richness and largeness of heart. True freedom and happiness is in genorosity of spirit as in theSermon on the Mount. Without exaggeration. Jesus spared us the bs about the fact that you can possess riches as long as you are not attached to it. So rare is that person that s/he may not exist. The lesson of Lazarus and the rich man is concrete and pertains to all. If we do not share with the Somalis or any other deprived persons we are without Jesus. The drumming down of the gospel message has been the hierarchy’s greatest fault. Christians in general leave their money to family, no matter how undeserving than they do to the downtrodden. Too many rich set up charitable trusts which benefit them more than the deprived.
The poor are responsible for their lot until we become one of them.
My old classmate, Sister I.C. , a teacher for 45 years, was wearing a stunning coat. She showed me the designer label. “Vow of poverty?” I thought. The secret- buy from the charity thrift shop in the posh part of town at the seasonal clearance. Local sisters Know this. I asked, “Sister, will you go back to the habit? “Ten yards of serge?”, she laughed.
The Episcopal priest, Mother L., at the church where our R.C. parish ladies distribute clothing, asked me to be on the lookout for used denim jumpers for herself and some nuns. I asked why she didn’t have them custom-made. The cost would be $200 each, she explained.
I wonder how much it costs to sew up ten yards of serge?
When the disciples saw this, they were indignant and said, “Why this waste? It could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor.” Mt 26: 8-9
This is not exactly a new issue. The judgment day story in Mt 25 is probably meant as a commentary on this passage, reasserting that giving to the poor is giving to Jesus against a story that seems to say the opposite.
If you find a resolution, let me know. I can’t help identifying with the disciples here, even if they are wrong.
Years ago I went with some college students to the Denver World Youth Day event. The housing and food was simple.I don’t know what Madrid was like.
But my concern is whether these events really move youth to real conversion and commitment – not to a bourgeois faith that gets tied up with a life style that really doesn’t reflect discipleship. Does it open youth to the full message of the Gospel – commitment to Christ, openness to the cross, solidarity with the poor and marginalized? Or is the message one of triumphalism?
I write from a poor country, Honduras. Ninety percent of the people I know would not have any chance of getting to Madrid. Where does that leave them?
It actually leaves them trying to follow Christ and be disciples of Christ and missionaries to their neighbors.
Is that the message and the commitment that the young people in Madrid will bring back to their peers?
According to a brochure from The diocese of Springfield, IL, the cost per attendee was over $3,000. This is an event targeted at the upper middle class and wealthy.
http://mm.dio.org/nov_09/item03b.pdf
I have never forgotten a service in a Baptist church led by a missionary who was going to receive the collection. He offered the money on the full plates to God, and prayed for blessing on the donors and the purposes for which the collection had been taken. He then asked God’s blessing on the money we had not contributed, that we might be careful to use that also as God willed.
This is surely the right attitude, and not the method of a neo-Cat group which passed round a bowl, and continued to pass it, again and again amid stern harangues until the cost of the weekend at an expensive hotel was met by the not very affluent participants. A friend of mine was there, and she was unemployed and resourceless. She had to come to us for her meals that week.
John A Donaghy (8/23 10:22 pm):
It leaves them in Central America. Wasn’t Madrid mainly for Europeans? If a World Youth Day event were held in the Americas, wouldn’t considerably more Hondurans be able to attend?
Why does everything have to be judged by how much it cost? That’s an awfully materialistic measuring stick.
The conundrum is the “quoted” words of Jesus that the poor will always be with you and the incident of the anointing of Jesus. The question follows concerning what did Jesus say or did not say. A good rule if interpreting the scriptures is to follow the tone of the gospel in determining a passage. Jesus had no home, hung out with the powerless and despised, women, poor and children. There is clearly no question where the mind of Jesus is. Damasus, Athanasius, Eusebius, Jerome and Augustine decided to build an empire from all this. Shows you can do anything with the scriptures if you are so bent.
I see a difference between the “riches” of the Church (which belong to everyone) and revival meetings like WYD.
Many of my former students attended them. They come from affluent families (though they did hold a couple of car washes to defray expenses). They met other kids with whom they’ll be BFFs. They took lots of pictures to put on FB. They saw a famous person (JP2). Then they cam home and went to the bar.
My sense is that this trip was about on par with a visit to Disney World. And the spiritual development that occurs is about a mile wide and an inch deep.
Jesus’ statement that “the poor you will always have with you,” is one of the most misunderstood NT texts. It’s source is Deut 15:11 The land will never lack for needy persons; that is why I command you: “Open your hand freely to your poor and to your needy kin in your land.” Instead of being an excuse for not taking care of the poor it is an injunction to meet their needs, something which the gospels show Jesus doing continuously throughout his ministry.
How did Thomas Aquinas get around the parable of the widow’s mite in which Jesus praises her fro giving out of her substance and not out of her surplus?
David Smith: Why do they call it World Youth Day if they mean it to be a regional event like European Youth Day?
I’m 29 — I’ve never been to World Youth Day; I do share some of the concerns about it voiced here, though my particular concerns would be more about whether there’s too much blindness to failures on the part of the pope (e.g., he should remove Cardinal Law from his positions of power on all of those congregations in the Curia). I do think that Benedict XVI is fundamentally a good, holy, and scholarly, intelligent man, but I think that… well, for whatever reason, he’s not willing to make reforms that need to be made, and to reduce the corruption on the part of bishops, and their tendency to do things (e.g., closing schools rather than selling their mansions) regardless of what the people want.
But having said all of that, I can’t help but think we should ask the kids and young people who’ve attended World Youth Day themselves what it was like for them. To appropriate more liberal-sounding language in a somewhat ironic way, shouldn’t we consider the “lived experience” of the peope at World Youth Day? What would they say if asked whether or not it was spiritually beneficial, helped them live out the Gospel more authentically, etc.? And if we don’t like their answer, can we simply tell them they’re wrong, and that we know better than they do what the Gospel is? Perhaps we can indeed tell them that based on the authority of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, but then what if someone tries to deliver a similar message to us?
By the way, about the title of this post, should it be “Money and Manna,” not “Mana,” which is a sort of magic or life force, as in one of my favorite video games of all time, “Secret of Mana” by Square Soft, released in 1993, with a sequel which to my everlasting disappointment was never released outside of Japan? ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnsJI4rmoVE
I’d like to add that IMO brendan is right about the twp BXVIs
How to get a big enough sample of the youth at WYD? Would be really good to know, but, I suspect, hard to capture.
Flip side, what was the general reaction in Spain/ Across Europe? Worldwide (yawn?)
Interesting (and somewha sad to my mind) exgetical study here. on relating to the poor.
No “preferential option” for some?
No mention of Dives and Lazarus?
Alan M. gets an HT in capitals from me and, I hope, everyone else here.
Hah! Thanks for the correction, Brendan.
Yes, Christ commands us to care for the poor in the Gospels. But He also tells us, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you to.” Which is exactly what World Youth Day aims to do, evangelize, a particularly vital task considering the poor catechesis many have received in recent decades.
Lord knows I agree that catechesis in parishes is horrendous, and it makes it worse that those who DO step up to the plate get a lot of accolades for trying, so we all have to pretend that the process is better than it is so as not to make the teachers feel bad.
How does WYD in any way offset the mess that is CCD?
Please, Jean, add the words “Some” or “Too many” to sweeping statements such as “Catechesis in parishes is horrendous.” There are some good programs out there. For years I have had magnificent colleagues in the “adult ed” programs I attend, devout people who are constant trying to learn more of their faith and present it better.
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Because catechesis belongs primarily to apostles, a few years ago the Powers decided to have catechesis at WYD done only by guys who have the rank of bishop, holding their golden staffs and wearing their ridiculous miters. I have heard that the presentation by Auxiliary Bishop Frank Caggiano of Brooklyn was good. To quote my source, who was there, “he did a very good job over the next hour or so, speaking about his own experiences of faith and guiding the young people to reflect on how Jesus could and should be deeply present in their lives. The youth listened attentively throughout, and some asked pointed questions afterwards.”
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The catechesis I hear at Sunday Mass sometimes lacks nuances. Last Sunday, the pastor, a scripture scholar, presented as “Upon this Rock I will build my church” as if only the current RC counts as a church. Other times, he does hint that Grace is more abundant.
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For a view of part of the first day of the WYD or JMJ or Weltjugendtag, one might look
at
http://georgevangrieken.blogspot.com/
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Joe McMahon
Joe, point taken, and my apologies to the many fine CCD teachers out there, none of whom I know.
The ones who run our parish program are of two varieties.
1. The ones trying hard to emulate Sister Mary Smack Your Mouth, whom they remember fondly from elementary school religion (why is it that SOME Catholics remember corporal punishment from nuns and parents so fondly ….).
2. Mild-mannered, pious parents who had very tractable children, and who are utterly horrified by the live-wires like mine who disrupt the class b/c the material involves rote memorization of prayers and quizzes about the hardware involved in Mass (what is a paten? a crozier? a censer?), nothing that can help them with anything “real,” like the bullies at school, the temptation to steal stuff, or where their grandparents go when they’re dead.
In my view, every parish should have a Youth Day, where the Mass offers special prayers for children and young people (maybe even letting them do the readings and prayers), a picnic, and maybe a couple of breakout sessions on topics the kids have asked to discuss with someone from the diocese.
Possibly this could end with a special rosary that the kids pray for special friends and relatives who are deceased.
Jean — I remember during my junior year of high school (1999-2000 — which, I feel some strange urge to point out, was also the third Season of Dawson’s Creek), I went to the Philly archdiocese’s “Archdiocesan Youth Day.” I can’t remember exactly, but I think it was just for high school students. I remember that catechetically, it was somewhat jarring, since it was more conservative than what I was used to at the private Catholic schools — Waldron Mercy Academy (Sisters of Mercy) and St. Joseph’s Prep (Jesuits). I think… this is probably unfair, but at that Archdiocesan Youth Day, I felt like they treated us like children — not necessarily in a bad way, but at the Prep they treated us more like adults, especially in Religion class. (E.g., for most courses, we didn’t use the typical religion textbooks — we used Thomas Bokenkotter’s Concise History of the Catholic Church for Church History, for example.) The diocesan Catholic school world is very different from the private Catholic school world.
One thing that sticks out in my memory for some reason is Cardinal Bevilacqua’s homily at Mass — despite everything with the scandals, I can’t help but harbor a limited fondness for him. Anyway, I remember him talking about the Eucharist — and I think he said something about how people often wish they could have been alive when Jesus lived, or been there at the cross — and from there he somehow led up to the words I remember so well, since he said them in a sort of distinctive voice: “But do you know that it is the SAME THING???” I.e., that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the same as the Sacrifice of the Cross, though it wouldn’t be until years later that I’d be able to look back and identify the doctrinal point he was making.
Overall, it was a good day, and evening — I remember later in the evening, there was a dance, with the lower floor basement or whatever a traditional mixer with the lights off, pop music, etc., and the upper floor in the gym having square dancing. (Odd to call the mixer “traditional” compared to the square dancing.) I liked the square dancing, because I’ve never felt comfortable dancing in the free-wheeling, gyrating way; I feel much more comfortable if there’re set moves so I won’t feel ridiculous. This was at Cardinal Dougherty High School — which they closed last year.
A thought just occurred to me — at some point, they should hold World Youth Day in Boston. I don’t think I need to explain why. (Though it’d also be nice to have it in Philly some day, too.)
Brendan, I’m not sure why I have such a strong negative response to things like CCD, vacation Bible school, World Youth Day, and other RE. Partly it’s because it strikes me as being very pat and patronizing, as you suggest. (Though, I don’t mean to suggest that it has to be that way or is always that way, pace, Joe McMahon.)
I look back fondly at my Unitarian upbringing, which exposed us to a wide variety of religious thought from a very early age and continued through high school. It always dovetailed with “service projects.”
Adults in the church emphasized that God didn’t expect you to sit around on your fanny if you saw something you thought was unfair. The church also harbored a draft dodger during the Vietnam war after C.O.’s became almost impossible to get unless you were in a bona fide pacifist religion like the Amish. We used to go around dragging one arm and saying “sanctuary!” a la Charles Laughton in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” whenever we saw him.
See also:
http://www.getreligion.org/2011/08/rounding-up-madrids-popestock/
Brendan said: “I can’t help but think we should ask the kids and young people who’ve attended World Youth Day themselves what it was like for them.”
I suspect for many of them, like attendees at revival and tent meetings and papal masses in St. Peter’s, the experience is like the Pecos (I think –) River: a mile wide and an inch deep.
I’m sure many also have come away with at least a little more understanding of the catholicity of what they experienced. Does that transfer to any kind of metanoia? Beats me.
We really have to distinguish between an event such as WYD and the continual practice of the faith. Like pilgrimages these events can have a positive effect because of the different context involved and the organized preaching around the event. That does not mean that pilrimages and events such as WYD are on the whole beneficial. It that is the case then you would have to include Benny Hinn and the revival meetings which do stir strong emotions in people. The proof is when the event leads to a strong commitment or that there are not better ways to build community.
The tepidity of too many parishes shows that a solid job is not being done in the trenches. You cannot cover-up a failed marriage in an extended vacation. Although a vacation (pilgrimage etc) can be helpful, it is the solid stuff that must be the everyday event.
I think it’s nice an effort was made to reach out to young people. I think we should do more for our youth, and there are worse ways to spend money.
I’m still trying to get my head around law partners and their suits. Maybe law partners need good suits, but does anyone really need to be a partner? Legal Aid hires, too. (And Sears clothes are actually looking better nowadays).
Bill,
I quoted the anointing story because it contains the dilemma of this post. And I used Mt, which is nearly identical to Mk and Jn, because he draws the strongest contrast on Cathy’s issue. Undoubtedly, we should give to the poor, but that is not the point Jesus (or Mk Mt or Jn if you prefer) makes when the woman empties her expensive perfume on him. There apparently is another value that Jesus is highlighting in response to those who object to not selling and giving to the poor.
The problem is not with “The poor you will always have with you;” but with the continuation: “you will not always have me.” This appears diametrically opposed to something that was said less than 20 verses earlier: “‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’” or at the end of Mt: “I am with you always.”
What is Jesus saying? I do not know. But I think it is worth thinking about. Is giving to the poor the all encompassing overriding value? I do not know. I suspect it is like the Sermon on the Mount’s “You have heard… but I say…” where Jesus expands the Law. There is more than the fundamental ‘almsgiving’, even if I cannot say what that more is.
Jim,
Francis of Assissi saw what that more is and that is the abdication of riches. Wars are fought over greed. When you seek to lift up rather than oppress you recognize the basic point of Jesus. The Magnificat brings it out ever so clearly. The poor are most precious in the sight of Jesus. The gospel is quite clear about this. Though we continue to honor the rich and oppress the poor. You rarely know a person until you have a money transaction of significance with them. Money is the root of all evil. But it still remains the most sought after route.
Jim McK 08/24/2011 – 10:02:
If it is, all that would do in the end is to create a permanent beggar class.
I don’t understand David S.’s last post, but it’s surely not exigesis.
I continue to think this thread is somewhat sad because the question of money at WYD has brought out the ideologues who think safety net and the common good are unworthy of the Gospel.
I tried to focus on the impact of WYD(cost effectiveness?)
Seems that even for our youth, BXVI’s approach is to warn them about the dangers of secularism.
I see that Abp. Chaput was there too as a prominent speaker and his First Things approach of bewaring of the awful media, Viz. MSNBC, CNN and, of course, NYT, wil keep these young minds safe.
I think , if I get it right, the message is the fortress Church.
I don’t think that’s effective!
Over at America ‘In All Things” there’s a thread anew on the Church not gaining, i.e. losing numbers of young.
IMO despite WYD. things will get worse if we continue our haste towards the smaller purer Church.
“Pope Benedict XVI has just returned to Italy from Spain, where he led hundreds of thousands of young people in Madrid’s celebration of World Youth Day. …”
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Oh my.
While 2 million is 20-hundred thousand, and so the phrasing “hundreds of thousands” is technically correct, unless one is attempting to minimize the number, it is clearer to say that nearly 2 million young people attended WTD in Madrid this year:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/colleen-carroll-campbell/article_15b253b6-8f43-5c98-899f-8c000d644f10.html
It is amazing how people worry about the money when the Pope travels abroad, ala “that perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor”. Nobody seems to be bothered when the Queen of England travels, or when our President moves around the globe.
I wish the same crowd would be as concerned with how, on a day-to-day basis, the US government spends taxpayers’ money.
My great niece attended World Youth Day. She is an intelligent, loving, devout and sincere teenager. I’m sure she was greatly moved and I believe the psychological impact of being among such a fervent outpouring of millions will deeply affect her.
However, I am very put off by such mass gatherings. I can recall the newsreels documenting the tearful and fervent adulation of Hitler at mass rallies, the upturned faces of masses listening to Mussolini promising a rebirth of the Roman empire, the swooning girls at Sinatra concerts, the wild abandon of thousands at rock concerts.
What was the message of Benedict – antiabortion, anti-gay? Those who believe in social justice find little in the Church to claim their allegiance. These last two popes have created a politically conservative episcopate, have tried to reverse the Vatican Council reforms, have intimidated Catholic Universities and theologians, have revised seminary training to emphasize priests’ liturgical role and downplay any teaching of social justice. Nuns are being hounded back into institutions under male clerical control and forced back into centuries-old black garb.
Gone are popes and the concerns of Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno, Mater and Magistri and the Vatican Council. Gone are so many of the Catholic schools while new churches provide dramatic backdrops for clerical performers.
Sad indeed.
Well… I find it very strange every time I read criticisms of things done and/or said or unsaid by the Pope and even Church hierarchy. It is as we did not believe in “the Holy Spirit and the Holy Catholic Church”… Did not Jesus specifically choose Peter and his successor to be Jesus representatives on earth (and, yes, that means acting as Jesus delegate in leading His Church) ? Did not Jesus say that He would be with His church until the end of times and the gates of hell would not prevail against Her? There are much better things to do to deepen our faith than spend our time criticizing the Pope for not having the priorities we think he should have! And as far as “giving to the poor” is concerned, it is only a very first step in helping the poor. A better long term goal would be to improve social organization so that the poor would have the opportunities to work on their own situations (in any case, this is what I remember from a talk I recently listened to about the Church Social Teaching – and what I understood from that talk as being the meaning of subsidiarity). Remember: If you give someone a fish he can eat today; teach him to fish and give him the tools he needs, and he will be able to support himself for the long term. Maybe private charity is a way to make the giver feel good and superior, but it is certainly not enough…
Please George; Hitler and Mussolini?
As for “anti-this” or “anti-that”; not really. The Church is not a democracy; never has been and never will be.
The Catholic Church is the herald of Truth and as such, the pope could hardly proclaim in favor of abortion and he could hardly say that homosexual relationships are legitimate and equal to normal sexuality.
The reason is not a relative stance taken by a so-called conservative pope. The Church maintains that abortion is wrong because abortion is murder and murder is wrong.
Abortion was murder in the days of the Caesars and it is murder today; it has always been murder.
Why is that so difficult to understand? Sad indeed.
Per Geroge: “..What was the message of Benedict – antiabortion, anti-gay? Those who believe in social justice find little in the Church to claim their allegiance. ..”
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What? Do you think the pope – the Vicar of Christ – do you think the pope “does not believe in” social justice. What nonsense.
First of all, social justice is not something to be “believed in”; it is something one should practice. Secondly, what do abortion and homosexuality have to do with social justice? Abortion is murder, and homosexuality is an abnormality, a disorder.
Social justice calls on people not to engage in murder, and would also call on people not to abuse disordered persons. Killing babies is obviously murder, and when one encourages homosexuals to follow their flawed instincts and to embrace the sort of self-destructive behaviors that their condition entails, that is abuse by giving what is obviously erroneous advice, by leading someone astray. As with an alcoholic, you do him no favor by telling him follow his instincts. The boozer’s instinct is to drink himself to an early grave; his instinct is flawed. It is wrong to knowingly lead someone to destruction.
And so rather than claiming to “believe in” social justice, it is better to actually practice social justice.
It seemed to me that the media lost or maybe even squelched a great opportunity to compare the young people at WYD (whatever it cost the church to host them there) and the youngsters rampaging through England’s cities at around the same time, looting and vandalizing everything they could put their hands on.
Could the difference be laid to one group of kids having money and the other having none? It seems to me that’s too easy a conclusion. Why not suppose that WYD kids already have some of the values and self-discipline that will serve the church and the world well in the future?
You make a very good point Catherine; I had not thought of that.
It seemed to me the mainstream media did their best to minimize and/or ignore WYD.
I thought the Stations of the Cross procession in Madrid (saw it via EWTN) was wonderful.
Whether John Paul or Rue Paul what we do is far more important than what we wear.