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Vatican, May. 9, 2008 (CWNews.com) - At a midday meeting on May 9 with the leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) looked forward to Pentecost Sunday and said, "we will pray in a particular way for the unity of the Church." ... "Striving for Christian unity is an act of obedient trust in the work of the Holy Spirit." |
The headlines of MX Melbourne today asks the question: what are we willing to pay for the future generation? The issue lies with government plans to share the burden of paid maternity leaves to the public, to the tune of $5.70 per week for those who earn about $50,000 AUD per year. The comments included in the report seemed to come only from those who consider the idea unfair to them, i.e., single people. Lack of reflection is evident. They have not considered that they did not pay for their own public education and healthcare. Nor do they consider who will pay for their public healthcare and pension. They have not considered the people those babies will become. Nor do they consider who will care for them in hospitals, drive them around in buses and trains, serve them in restaurants, health clubs, libraries, cinemas, banks and various places of recreation.
Just as long as they don't ask my kids for services and tax dollars.
Luckily, that doesn't mean I stop reading. News and other blogs, mostly. Here, for example, is a sad case of a Catholic judging a Catholic convert (from Protestantism). Jimmy Akin happens to be an inspiring Catholic writer/blogger, whose lucid writing is always a welcome light when .. well.. emotional mayhem is ensuing around religious discussions. He understands the catechism very, very well, likewise canon law (though not a canon lawyer himself, I think), the Church Fathers, and of course, Holy Scripture.
Why on earth would anyone decide that being a Catholic convert is not Catholic enough? I don't really get it. After all, we're all converts. Not one of us was born a Catholic, not one of us was born a saint (with the exception of the Blessed Mother and, in a way, St. John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb of his mother). We are also called to conversion everyday, and in a special way during Lent. The problem isn't in a convert like Jimmy Akin (or Mark Shea, or Scott Hahn). The problem is the pride of Catholics who have become Pharisees, whose distrust of converts to Catholicism outweighs their charity and trust in God's gracious call for all his children into the fullness of truth.
Am I a convert, you might ask? Oh, yes I am. Ideally, right after every trespass against God and against even the least of his children.
