LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The following letters appeared in the December issue of the Catholic Anchor.
Daily Archives: November 2015
Anchorage Archbishop’s December Calendar
CatholicAnchor.org Dec. 3, AK Conf. of Catholic Bishops, Anchorage Dec. 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 22, 29, 9 a.m., Mass, St. Andrew, Eagle River Dec. 5, 5:30 p.m., Confirmation & Mass, Holy Cross Dec. 6, 20, 27, 10 a.m., Mass, St. Andrew Dec. 8, 12:10 p.m., Mass & opening doors for Year of Mercy, Holy…
Community Calendar for Anchorage Archdiocese
CatholicAnchor.org Sundays, 11 a.m., Mass, AK Native Medical Center Sundays, 4 p.m., Dominican Rite Mass, Holy Family Sundays & Thursdays, 6:15 a.m. & 11:30 a.m., Mass, Our Lady of Providence Chapel (1st floor lobby at Providence) Tuesdays, 10 a.m., MOMs group, St. Andrew, Eagle River Thursdays, 11 a.m., Native Kateri Circle, St. Anthony Dec. 21,…
EDITORIAL: Coffee cups can’t resurrect Christmas
The gradual decent into Christmas incoherence is not merely the fault of the unchurched masses. Practicing Christians, too, have failed to pass on many of the rich traditions that celebrate and teach the spiritual heart and meaning of Christmas. Reasons vary, but our once Christian-saturated culture has grown increasingly secular, and that affects us all, including how we celebrate Christmas. The answer to this malady doesn’t lie in pressuring Starbucks to baptize its red-washed holiday cups. Those are only the final fruits of a long chain of events. A “Merry Christmas” cup isn’t going to turn the tide. The renewal of Christmas will begin elsewhere…
How do we embrace the mystery of Jesus in the Eucharist?
I know some people find it difficult to believe that bread and wine change and become the Body and Blood of Jesus. In fact recent polls indicate that more than 35 percent of practicing Catholics do not believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. I can understand their doubts. It goes against our logic to believe that here before me is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ — God’s only begotten Son and my savior. But anyone schooled in logic will tell you that it is not enough to say I don’t understand it therefore I won’t believe it.
Natural law’s continued importance for America’s legal system
As a practitioner both of American secular law and the canon law of the Catholic Church I observe differences and similarities between these two legal systems. One sharp difference is the clear acceptance by canon law of the natural law as a source of foundational legal principles, contrasted with the almost total silence and even hostility toward natural law in the modern American legal system. There is no good reason for this radical difference and that the rejection of natural law as a direct source of legal norms has detached American law from its foundational roots in natural justice.