sábado, 29 de agosto de 2009

Contágios

1. As leituras deste Domingo (XXII – tempo comum – B) falam-nos dos preceitos ou mandamentos da Lei de Deus como um caminho de vida e felicidade – o que significa que antes de serem uma exigência são um dom que nos é concedido. Esta lei de Deus é a Sua Palavra (Logos) pela qual e para a qual fomos feitos, que foi enraizada nos nossos corações. De modo que viver segundo Ela, em virtude da força que Ela nos comunica, é cumprir ou realizar a nossa humanidade, tendo em vista a meta para a qual fomos criados, onde alcançaremos a plenitude, isto é, a Glória, a comunhão imediata com Deus, o Céu. S. Tiago adverte-nos que o amor de Deus se verifica no amor ao próximo, dando como exemplo o cuidar dos órfãos e das viúvas, e na salvaguarda da Saúde (= Salvação), evitando o contágio do mundo.

Importa aqui notar que a palavra mundo nas Sagradas Escrituras tem, fundamentalmente, dois significados que são divergentes entre si (como outros vocábulos, por exemplo, as águas). Por um lado, o mundo tem uma conotação positiva, uma vez que se refere à Criação de Deus e à justa autonomia relativa (ao Criador) das realidades temporais, como ensina S. Tomás. Por outro lado, porém, a palavra mundo, como acontece, por exemplo, em S. João significa uma mentalidade feita costume que se opõe aos desígnios de Deus, ao Seu amor salvífico. Ora S. Tiago, obviamente refere-se a esta mentalidade dominante que se fecha, que arrenega, adversa e combate a Deus e aos Seus.

De modo que o católico é chamado, como ensina o Concílio Vaticano II, a abrir-se ao mundo, no primeiro sentido, exercendo, não obstante, um rigoroso discernimento, ajuizando e acolhendo o que é bom, aperfeiçoando-o, purificando o que é insuficiente, rejeitando e combatendo decididamente o que é mal. Seria de todo indesculpável uma atitude ingénua, leviana, ou bonacheirona em matéria de tanta gravidade.

2. No Evangelho assistimos a uma polémica entre Jesus e os fariseus a propósito de uns rituais de purificação. Jesus Cristo admoesta os fariseus por lavarem as mãos, os copos e os pratos. Não o faz, no entanto, por condenar a higiene mas sim pela crença tradicionalista de que através daquelas abluções ficariam religiosamente e moralmente limpos. Aos mandamentos da Lei de Deus a tradição tinha acrescentado numerosos preceitos humanos que tinham, de algum modo, ganho uma importância desmedida ao ponto de não poucos se sentirem dispensados do cumprimento da Palavra de Deus, substituindo-a, ou pelo menos menorizando-a, por essas práticas desses rituais. Por isso, o Salvador insiste na purificação interior uma vez que é dos corações dos homens que saem todos os pecados e ignomínias.

A higiene, pelo contrário, pode ser vista como um modo de respeitar e cumprir o mandamento Não Matarás. Este preceito implica não só a proibição absoluta de matar directa e deliberadamente qualquer ser humano inocente mas também a promoção da vida de cada pessoa humana.

A campanha insistentíssima a que temos vindo a assistir a propósito da chamada “gripe A” pode ser entendida, caso seja verdade tudo aquilo que se tem dito sobre a mesma, como uma forma de cuidado pela vida própria e alheia. A higiene seria então uma expressão de justiça e de amor.

3. Embora, como ficou dito, a contundente intervenção do Senhor não tenha a ver directamente com a higiene corporal, talvez nos devamos perguntar se, apesar de tudo, não nos ensina alguma coisa sobre esta obsessão do nosso tempo com a vida meramente temporal e exterior. O facto de reconhecermos a sua importância não nos deveria, de feito, fazer descurar a interior e eterna – “Quem quiser salvar a sua vida, perdê-la-á; mas, quem perder a sua vida por minha causa, salvá-la-á” (Mt. 16, 25).

Como é possível que um mesmo estado, como o nosso, cisme tanto em despoluir os ambientes propícios à sobrevivência do vírus ou ao seu contágio e simultaneamente contribua tanto para, por todos os meios, sistematicamente envenenar espiritualmente os cidadãos? Como pode ser que quem se afana tanto na matança de muitas centenas de milhares de pessoas nascituras queira agora surgir como salva-vidas?

Nuno Serras Pereira

29. 08. 2009

HLI Priest-President Re: Kennedy Funeral Scandal: "Private funeral, family only - period"


Catholic funeral for Kennedy is unjust to those who have actually paid the price of fidelity, says Fr. Euteneuer

By Kathleen Gilbert and Peter Smith

HYANNIS PORT, Massachusetts, August 28, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The public Catholic funeral of Senator Ted Kennedy - whose long career of abortion advocacy helped sever the American Catholic identity from the Church's pro-life teaching - will be a source of immense scandal, says Human Life International (HLI) president Fr. Tom Euteneuer. In addition, he said, Obama's scheduled eulogy at the event amounts to a "perfect absolution" whitewashing Kennedy's opposition to Catholic moral teaching.

A funeral mass has been scheduled for Saturday morning at the Boston Archdiocese's Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, following the Senator's death Tuesday night after a battle with brain cancer.

Kennedy is well-known for dissenting from Catholic Church teaching in the latter decades of his public life, advocating unrestricted abortion as well as embryonic stem-cell research and same-sex "marriage."

"Ted Kennedy's positions on a variety of issues have been a grave scandal for decades, and to honor this 'Catholic' champion of the culture of death with a Catholic funeral is unjust to those who have actually paid the price of fidelity," said Fr. Euteneuer in a statement Thursday.

"It is not enough for Kennedy to have been a 'great guy behind the scenes' as we have seen him referred to even by his political opponents," he continued.

Euteneuer faulted Kennedy for putting "a Catholic rhetorical veneer" on liberal politics that "did nothing to advance true justice as the Church sees it or to advance the peace of Christ in this world."

"Whatever one's political affiliation, if one is only "Catholic" to the extent that his faith rhymes with his party line, then his Catholicism is a fraud," said Euteneuer.

"He will not be missed by the unborn who he betrayed time and time again, nor by the rest of us who are laboring to undo the scandalous example of Catholicism that he gave to three generations of Americans."

Euteneuer told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) in a Thursday interview that the best course of action for the Boston Archdiocese's Cardinal Sean O'Malley would be "Private funeral, family only - period."

While O'Malley issued a statement this week praising the senator's "commitment to public service" and offering his prayers, he has not directly commented on the funeral plans. LifeSiteNews.com's phone and email requests for comment from the Boston Archdiocese were not answered.

Euteneuer noted that "we don't really know" if Kennedy repented of his public position before death. "So just because he received the sacrament of reconciliation, doesn't mean he was actually reconciled with the Church and with God," he said. "We just don't know that. We hope for it."

However, said Euteneuer: "We know that Sen. Kennedy did not repent publicly, therefore any kind of public funeral or appearance by public figures like President Obama only reinforces the scandal. It does not do anything to undo the damage that Sen. Kennedy has done."

Pro-life leaders, including HLI and the American Life League, were dismayed that President Obama is scheduled to deliver a eulogy at Kennedy's funeral Mass. Obama and Kennedy have been close allies ever since Kennedy threw his weight behind Obama's presidential campaign - which was recognized as a turning point in Obama's journey to the White House.

"In a certain sense it is the perfect absolution - to use a sacramental term - of a man whose public life has been a continuous slap in the face of the Catholic Church," said Euteneuer of the eulogy.

"We were slapped in the face by President Obama at Notre Dame, and now President Obama is going to preside in a certain sense over a Catholic heretic's funeral and whitewash everything he did which was contrary to the Catholic Church."


To respectfully contact Cardinal O'Malley with concerns:
phone: 617 782-2544
email: sdiago@rcab.org

* NOTE: see Effective Communications in Response to LifeSiteNews Reports http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042903.html

Archdiocese of Boston:
phone: 617 254-0100
fax: 617 746-5762

Rev. Ray Collins, pastor
Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
phone: 617 445-2600
fax: 617 445-1857

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

The Kennedy Funeral - A Golden Opportunity or Capitulation for the Catholic Church

Pro-Life Leaders: Tell Cardinal O'Malley Not to Honor Pro-Abortion Kennedy with Public Catholic Funeral

FLASHBACK: Catholic Priests and Professors Share Blame for Kennedys' Pro-Abortion Identity

AIDS Prevention Expert Publicly Re-Affirms Pope's Comment on Condoms Was Right


"The condom does not prevent AIDS"… "Only responsible sexual behavior can address the pandemic."

By Patrick B. Craine

RIMINI, Italy, August 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Once again, the director of Harvard's AIDS Prevention Research Project has publicly affirmed that the Pope was right on AIDS and condoms, as Zenit reports.

Dr. Edward Green affirmed the Pope's teaching in an address this past Tuesday at the 30th Annual Rimini Meeting for Friendship Among the Peoples, sponsored by the Communion and Liberation lay movement.

"As a scientist [I] was amazed to see the closeness between what the Pope said last March in Cameroon and the results of the most recent scientific discoveries," said Dr. Green. "The condom does not prevent AIDS. Only responsible sexual behavior can address the pandemic."

"When Benedict XVI said that different sexual behavior should be adopted in Africa, because to put trust in condoms does not serve to fight against AIDS," he continued, "the international press was scandalized."

This March, Pope Benedict ignited a worldwide controversy, outraging media, world leaders, and even church members, when, on his first pastoral visit to Africa, he said that condoms only heighten the problem of AIDS. AIDS "is a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems," he told reporters.

Notable critics were notoriously pro-abortion former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie. Interestingly, Mr. Blair, who joined the Catholic Church in 2007, but has not repudiated his anti-life views, is a featured speaker at this year's Rimini event.

The Pope was supported at the time, however, by members of the Church hierarchy, Catholic doctors, and Dr. Green himself.

In affirming the Pope, the AIDS expert also manifested a limited support for condoms, however, which is a view contrary to Catholic teaching. "The condom can work for particular individuals, but it will not serve to address the situation of a continent."

"To propose the regular use of the condom as prevention in Africa could have the opposite effect," he said.

Green pointed to the success of the Ugandan 'ABC' strategy, which says, "Abstain, Be faithful, and, as a last resource, use a Condom."

"The president was able to tell the truth to his people, to young people, that on occasions some sacrifice, abstinence and fidelity are necessary," he said. "The result has been formidable."


See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Pope Says Condoms Not Solution to AIDS

Harvard AIDS Expert Says Pope is Correct on Condom Distribution Making AIDS Worse