Hunger Games Revisited,One Catholic View

[NOTE: This is primarily a revision of a previous post.]

This week, The Hunger Games movie became available on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and other VOD outlets. For those of you who may have missed my previous post outlining my opinion (and that's all this is) on how Catholics should approach deciding whether or not their children should watch the film or even read the books (that I hear are far better than the first movie).

My personal position (and of course that's all it is) is that parents have to make those types of decisions based on what they think their children are mature enough to handle. I addressed a similar issue with the last Harry Potter movie. Like I said in that post, the Catholic Church (outside of a movie review service) does not normally make definitive statements about books, movies or other art.

Forget about the content of the book(s) for a moment. A well formed and informed set of parents should be able to make rational decisions about what content they deem appropriate for THEIR children. If they choose to permit their children to watch the film or read the books, no one should call them out as bad parents. Similarly, parents who decide to not allow either should not be condemned as narrow minded. It's their right and responsibility to "be up in their kids' business." (I am envisioning one of my colleagues saying this).

Moreover, parents are responsible for being the primary teachers to their children. Blessed Pope John Paul II expressed this in Familiaris Consortio:

The task of giving education is rooted in the primary vocation of married couples to participate in God's creative activity: by begetting in love and for love a new person who has within himself or herself the vocation to growth and development, parents by that very fact take on the task of helping that person effectively to live a fully human life. As the Second Vatican Council recalled, "since parents have conferred life on their children, they have a most solemn obligation to educate their offspring. Hence, parents must be acknowledged as the first and foremost educators of their children. Their role as educators is so decisive that scarcely anything can compensate for their failure in it. For it devolves on parents to create a family atmosphere so animated with love and reverence for God and others that a well-rounded personal and social development will be fostered among the children. Hence, the family is the first school of those social virtues which every society needs."(FC, 36)Here are some well balanced reviews of the movie:

National Review, Father Robert Barron

Catholic News Service, Movie Review

Tuesday Tech Talk:USCCB Revamps Online Catechism

The USCCB website has recently updated their online version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The "e-book" version of the CCC is now more user friendly. You can now make searches, use hyperlinks to maneuver around on the book and you can even print pages from the site.

Here is an image of the homepage:

Saint Talk: St. Maximilian Kolbe

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Maximlian Kolbe, who like St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was martyred at Auschwitz. Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan who began the Militia Immaculata movement and helped spread devotion to Mary and promote the wearing of the Miraculous Medal.

In 1941, Maximilian was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz. In July of that year, prisoners escaped from the concentration camp.  The commandant of the camp ordered that ten of the men be executed in place of those had escaped. One of the prisoners had a wife and family. Kolbe stepped up to the front and offered to take the man's place. The Nazis attempted to starve Maximilian to death. He last over two weeks without food. Finally, the guards injected him with a poison and he died. This is why he is the patron of drug addicts. He is also the patron of new ministries and the founders of Joe Catholic prayed a novena to St. Maximilian when they were discerning the creation of the group.

Watch the video for some lessons that we can learn from St. Maximilian Kolbe.

Saint Talk: St. Lawrence, Patron of Comedians

"The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence,"
 by Masters of the Acts of Mercy

Little is known about St. Lawrence, but most accounts indicate he was martyred in 258AD and celebration of his feast day spread rapidly. St. Lawrence "has been one of the most honoured martyrs of the Roman Church" since the 4th Century (Catholic Encyclopedia).

Lawrence was a Roman deacon who served under Pope Sixtus II. According to New Advent's Catholic Encyclopedia, Sixtus and later Lawrence were victims of the persecution of Valerian. St. Ambrose of Milan wrote an account of St. Lawrence's martyrdom and described him being burned on a gridiron.

What I found most interesting about St. Lawrence is that he is considered the patron of comedians. According to St. Ambrose's account, Lawrence was executed by being placed on a gridiron over coals of fire. While he was literally being cooked alive, he called to his persecutors, "I'm done on that side. Flip me over." One other funny note - St. Lawrence is also the patron of cooks.

St. Lawrence teaches us a valuable lesson that in times of adversity we too should trust so much in the power of God that we can face anything with cheerfulness.

We Must Trust and Follow Our Church Leaders

Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archdiocese of New York 

Cardinal Dolan is catching quite a bit of flack in Catholic circles for inviting President Obama to attend the Alfred E. Smith dinner which raises money for Catholic Charities, especially for the needy children in New York. Traditionally, but not always, during an election year, the two party candidates for the presidency are invited to speak. The dinner is more like a roast with each of the speakers joking at each other's expense.

Without question this is and has been a particularly contentious year between the Obama administration and the Catholic Church. In fact, Cardinal Dolan has been the point man criticizing the President for overreaching his constitutional authority through the implementation of the HHS Mandate. Despite that, Cardinal Dolan has decided to still invite President Obama to the dinner. As a result, some members of the Catholic media have taken it upon themselves to not only publicly disagree with Dolan, but to begin urging people to call and email Cardinal Dolan.

I believe, that while these people are well intentioned in their pursuit of turning back the HHS mandate, they are severely misguided in their efforts to coerce and harass the Cardinal. In my opinion, they suffer from the ill conceived notion that the Catholic Church should operate as a democracy. It does not, nor should it. These men are our shepherds and to paraphrase St. Ignatius of Antioch, the bishop is "like the living image of God the Father" (CCC #1549).

Instead, we faithful laity should follow, trust and pray for our Church leaders. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2234:

God's fourth commandment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received authority in society from God. It clarifies the duties of those who exercise authority as well as those who benefit from it.

Additionally, CCC #2238 advises:

Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God, who has made them stewards of his gifts:43 "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. . . . Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God."44 Their loyal collaboration includes the right, and at times the duty, to voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the good of the community.

I am so tired of reading columns and comments belittling and degrading our Church leaders. Surely they have made mistakes and will make more, but they are our leaders. Instead of spending our time denigrating them, we should be praying for them. I can't help but think of something St. Josemaria Escriva wrote in The Way:

It cut you to the heart to hear people say that you had spoken badly of those Priests. And I am glad that it hurt: for now I am sure you have the right spirit! (The Way #73)

Saint Talk: St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Today we celebrate the feast day of a modern saint, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. St. Teresa Bemedicta was born born on October 12, 1891 as Edith Stein. She grew up Jewish, but as she entered her teens, she stopped beleiving in God.

Stein was extremely intelligent and studied philosophy, specifically phenomenology, at the University of Göttingen. During her studies she encountered some Catholic classmates and was moved by the "strength of their faith" (www.Saints.SQPN.com). These encounters sparked Stein's interest and she began to study a catechism on Catholicism.

Stein went on to earn a doctorate in philosophy (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Freiburg. Her study of philosophy – the study or search for truth – fueled her intellectual curiosity. Edith would read the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila. Studying the life of this great Carmelite ignited a renewed awareness of God and Stein entered the Catholic Church in 1922.

After her conversion, Stein spent her time as an academic - writing, researching and teaching.  She became a Carmelite nun in 1934 and began teaching at the Educational Institute of Munich. She was forced to give this up during the reign of the Nazi's and moved to a Carmelite Monastery in the Netherlands. In 1940, along with other Dutch Jews, including her sister Rose, Stein was sent to Auschwitz where she would die in a gas chamber on August 9, 1942.

Lessons:
1. Intelligent people can believe in God.
2. Faith and reason go hand in hand.
3. God often uses the lives of other Christians to reflect His own love for us.
4. Catechesis and study of the saints can lead to sanctity.

Saint Talk: St. Dominic, the Lord's Hound

Today we celebrated the feast of St. Dominic who founded the Order of Preachers best known as the Dominicans. He founded the order in in the early 1200's and it was approved in 1216. The order's charism is that of preaching and to this day often make parish missions. St. Dominic, along with Bishop Diego de Acevedo, encountered and preached against the heresy of Albigensian. This heresy held that all things material were evil and denied the incarnation.

In addition to being a contemporary of St. Francis, St. Dominic introduced the Rosary as a form of prayer after he received a vision from Our Blessed Mother. She gave him instructions how to pray it. This account was affirmed by Pope Leo XIII and later Pope Pius XI

St. Dominic is often portrayed in art with a dog at his feet. Some say this is attributed to a dream his mother had. She dreamt of giving birth to a hound that held a lit torch in its mouth. Some believe that the hound in the dream reprsented Dominic spreading the light of Christ to the world.

In today's weekly audience, Pope Benedict XVI described St. Dominic as possessing "the harmonious integration of contemplation of the divine mysteries and apostolic activity.”

Lessons:

1. Like St. Dominic we should be men of prayer.

2. In St. Dominic we can see a model for combining lives of prayer (contemplation) with lives of action (apostolic mission). In other words - both and.