For those of you who have read my blog. Please read !
After watching President Obama sign the act which rescinds the prohibition of spending federal dollars (translated: Our tax dollars) on Embryonic Stem cell research, I decided I'd had enough of watching on the sidelines as the moral and ethical backbone of this country is sliced away by those who could care less. As I watched, there in the crowd around President Obama was Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a "renowned" Catholic. I went right to my computer sat down and wrote the following to the Archbishop of San Francisco:
To the Most Rev. George H. Niederauer
Dear Archbishop
Considering the following articles (excerpts) and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s outspoken support of Embryonic Stem Cell research and her specific appearance at President Obama’s signing of the act rescinding the prohibition of using more lines of Embryos for research, I believe it is in the Church’s interest and need that public scandal by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi be met with a public ex-communication by her Bishop. She has for several years now been consistently on the morally wrong side of the life issues (specifically Abortion and Stem Cell Research). These are paramount issues in the Church’s eyes as expressed by Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II before him. I respectfully request that you consider this means of stating the Church’s ultimate decision on these matters and as necessary for the teaching of the faithful.
Respectfully yours
Deacon Bruce and Pat Maltzen
Archdiocese of St. Paul – Minneapolis
I now also plan to write emails to President Obama and to other members of congress identifying for them the wonderful things that have happened with ADULT stem cell research in just the past several weeks. Including the ability to program Adult skin stem cells to act EXACTLY LIKE embryonic stem cells. We have transgressed the line too many times and I believe we don't have forever to wait for God to bring us back into line like he did wiht His Chosen People, the Israelites, so many times before.
Please, please, please - write your congressman and senators. Write the President, write your bishop. Tell them all how you feel about the way we have ignored God's word and how we desparately need to come back to the founding faith and the Church.
Excerpts from previous statements by the church:
Vatican City, Oct 11, 2007 / 09:49 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict issued a plea to all scientists today to stop using human embryos for research because it violates their God-given human dignity.
However, Pope Benedict was adamant in condemning the destruction and manipulation of embryonic humans: "discoveries in this field invite man to a deeper awareness of the weighty responsibilities involved in their application," and "under no circumstances may a human being be manipulated or treated as a mere instrument for experimentation.”
He continued his warning saying, “[t]he destruction of human embryos, whether to acquire stem-cells or for any other purpose, contradicts the purported intent of researchers, legislators and public health officials to promote human welfare.”
Making sure that people realize that the he is not against all forms of stem-cell research, the Pope pointed out that the Church does not hesitate to approve and encourage somatic stem-cell research: not only because of the favorable results obtained through these alternative methods, but more importantly because they harmonize with the aforementioned intent by respecting the life of the human being at every stage of his or her existence."
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Thursday (Jan 31, 2008) that embryonic stem cell research, artificial insemination and the prospect of human cloning had "shattered" human dignity.
In an address to members of the Vatican department on doctrinal matters, Benedict said the Church had a duty to defend the "great values at stake" in the field of bioethics.
He said this included total respect for the human being as a person "from conception until natural death," and respect for the natural transmission of life through sexual intercourse.
Practices like freezing embryos, suppression of embryos in multiple pregnancies, embryonic stem cell research, the prospect of human cloning and artificial insemination outside the body had "shattered the barriers meant to protect human dignity", he said.
"When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure 'biological material,' how can one deny that they are being treated not as 'someone' but as 'something,'" he said.
Such practices "questioned the very concept of the dignity of man," he said in the speech to the department known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Bishops Urge New President to Keep Laws on Conscience Rights,Foreign Aid for Abortion, Embryonic Stem Cell Research
January 19, 2009WASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops urged President-elect Barack Obama not to rescind current policies that protect conscience rights of health care workers, prevent foreign aid to organizations promoting abortion, and ban funding of stem cell research that encourages destruction of human embryos.
They made the request in a January 16 letter from Cardinal Francis George, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, shortly before President-elect Obama's inauguration. The letter followed by less than a week a previous letter outlining the bishops' broad policy agenda as the new Administration and Congress begin their work.
Cardinal George said some would expect the new president "to take executive action soon to reverse current policies" that uphold people's rights to follow their consciences and that respect innocent human life. Giving in to these expectations, he said, could be "a terrible mistake -- morally, politically, and in terms of advancing the solidarity and well-being of our nation's people."
Your brother in Christ,
Deacon Bruce
Monday, March 9, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Life is the only choice.
A requested post by my wife, Pat:
Looking for a pro-life music CD? Here's a great Catholic performer,
David MacDonald (http://www.prolifemusic.com/)
CD available on his website, as well as lyrics and more samples. There, you can also read his personal testimony about abortion.
Looking for a pro-life music CD? Here's a great Catholic performer,
David MacDonald (http://www.prolifemusic.com/)
CD available on his website, as well as lyrics and more samples. There, you can also read his personal testimony about abortion.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Intention of Marriage
Deacon Bruce Maltzen's
Homily for December 28, 2008
Holy Family Sunday
(readings found here)
It’s Holy Family Sunday and Archbishop Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has asked all of us to preach on the sacredness and purpose of marriage. Actually, what he said was:
“I am grateful to our priests and deacons for their willingness to preach about the sacred purpose of marriage and family life on Sunday, Dec. 28. This law “written in our hearts” is what we refer to as the natural law. It is “natural” because, being perceived by human reason, it is our participation in the eternal law of God. While independent of revelation, it can be further illuminated by it.
There are different expressions of the moral law: eternal law, natural law, revealed law, ecclesiastical law and civil law. These last two, ecclesiastical and civil laws, are established by human reason and participate, to one extent or another, in the will of God for human happiness and fulfillment.
When addressing his epistle to the Romans, St. Paul acknowledged that while non-Jews do not have the benefit of the Mosaic (revealed) law, nevertheless, they do have a law “written in their hearts” (Romans 2:15). This law of our hearts guides the consciences of men and women in knowing right from wrong so that their actions, too, can be judged by God at the end of time.
Our understanding of marriage as a union between one man and one woman, ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children, is known to us by the natural law. The complementarity of the sexes was determined by God in the beginning as an essential element of his wise, creative order. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, “The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by Him with its own proper laws . . . . God himself is the author of marriage” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 48.1).Thus, marriage is not merely a human institution, subject to changing mores. The civil laws that society in its collective wisdom has established regarding marriage between one man and one woman are intended to protect and safeguard the cultural context for the growth, education and well-being of the children who are born from the marital union. Governments, in their duty to ensure the common good, ought to know that society has much at stake in fostering family life according to the natural order. Any government should be leery of altering such civil laws, especially on the basis of a misguided notion of inclusiveness. Marriage, as intended by God from the beginning, is the proven way of establishing society’s welfare. “
We in the Catholic Church understand that Marriage is a Sacrament. To understand that, we must first understand what is meant by "Sacrament". The Catechism states: Sacraments are outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification
According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the sacraments are not mere signs; they do not merely signify Divine grace, but in virtue of their Divine institution, they cause that grace in the souls of men. -- a sign producing grace, is a good, succinct definition of a sacrament of the New Law. Sacrament, in its broadest acceptance, may be defined as an external sign of something sacred.
Back to the Sacrament of Marriage… In this Sacrament we should see reflections of something larger than ourselves. This is a Sacrament, that is a sign or touchstone or intervention into our normal everyday lives of God's presence with and in us. It is where God becomes one with us, and makes a covenant with us, a pledge to us, to promise to be with us in all things.
You see, Christ is a sacrament of God, that is He makes God the Father more visible , that is, He makes God's love for us visible and touchable. He is the sign of God, the Covenant with God. Marriage, then is a Sacrament of Christ, making Christ more visible, that is Christ's love more visible and touchable .
What a concept. To share the love that God shares. A gift that only can come from God. That is why this is a sacrament, to receive the Love shared between the Father and Son as John's Gospel states, " So that they may be one, as we are one…". That husband and wife can share that very same love. All it takes is belief, hearing and doing the Word of God. Can we believe Jesus? If you can, then what He says must be true, and therefore it is possible to share that love that Jesus talks about. We MUST become one in that same love so that we can reflect the Father's glory in His Son. So that in this unity, this oneness, we can become a beacon for the rest of the world. That husband and wife can become that light, that beacon of love for the rest of the family. Seeing this light, this Love, the rest of the family desires that light and love shared between husband and wife, shared with Jesus the Son who shares it with the Father in heaven. With this immense and unlimited love abiding in the couple, they should be able to surmount all the difficulties that may arise. They should be able to not only have love enough for their family, but should be able to extend that love beyond their family to the world that is so in need of love today.
And the world is definitely in need of all married couples to reflect God's love, example it to them. Today's culture does NOT support a sacramental marriage. Today's culture says "Live together and if it gets bad, just call it quits". Today's culture is about multiple lifestyle's and getting what's yours and looking out for myself. Today's culture is not supportive of sacrificial love, of giving oneself for another. Today's culture does not support the idea of spending your life in love for another.
Today's culture looks at marriage as a state recognized tax status, as an agreement to pool resources, as a security transaction to prevent loneliness, as a hedge against old age alone.
Marriage in the church is something far different from what the world thinks it is. You start marriage pledging that you will be "true to each other in good times and bad, in sickness and health, to love and honor each other for all the days of your lives." Marriage is more than consenting to live together and share your lives. It is a consenting to be a reflection of God's love. It is a consenting to be a beacon of God's light to a world which seems steeped in darkness.
In this Sacrament of love, a love shared between three (bride, groom and God) we proclaim God's love for us and God enters into this Covenant in the form of His Son. It is only in this way that this bringing together of two people can have life, life through and in Christ. Without him in this covenant, it is no longer a covenant but just an agreement, a license. But with him, Oh what love can be shared by two.
It is important to understand the marriage vows as the Church does
· Sacred
· Permanent
· Indissoluable (that cannot be dissolved, broken up, lasting, durable)
Love is not so much a decision as it is an encounter with another. In my life, I found that to be true. I did not have so much love that I knew or chose to give it to Pat, my wife of 31 years. When I encountered Pat, it sprang from somewhere within. It grew from a model of an encounter that had occurred in the past and was on-going. It grew from an encounter with an all-loving God.
Homily for December 28, 2008
Holy Family Sunday
(readings found here)
It’s Holy Family Sunday and Archbishop Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis has asked all of us to preach on the sacredness and purpose of marriage. Actually, what he said was:
“I am grateful to our priests and deacons for their willingness to preach about the sacred purpose of marriage and family life on Sunday, Dec. 28. This law “written in our hearts” is what we refer to as the natural law. It is “natural” because, being perceived by human reason, it is our participation in the eternal law of God. While independent of revelation, it can be further illuminated by it.
There are different expressions of the moral law: eternal law, natural law, revealed law, ecclesiastical law and civil law. These last two, ecclesiastical and civil laws, are established by human reason and participate, to one extent or another, in the will of God for human happiness and fulfillment.
When addressing his epistle to the Romans, St. Paul acknowledged that while non-Jews do not have the benefit of the Mosaic (revealed) law, nevertheless, they do have a law “written in their hearts” (Romans 2:15). This law of our hearts guides the consciences of men and women in knowing right from wrong so that their actions, too, can be judged by God at the end of time.
Our understanding of marriage as a union between one man and one woman, ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children, is known to us by the natural law. The complementarity of the sexes was determined by God in the beginning as an essential element of his wise, creative order. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, “The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by Him with its own proper laws . . . . God himself is the author of marriage” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 48.1).Thus, marriage is not merely a human institution, subject to changing mores. The civil laws that society in its collective wisdom has established regarding marriage between one man and one woman are intended to protect and safeguard the cultural context for the growth, education and well-being of the children who are born from the marital union. Governments, in their duty to ensure the common good, ought to know that society has much at stake in fostering family life according to the natural order. Any government should be leery of altering such civil laws, especially on the basis of a misguided notion of inclusiveness. Marriage, as intended by God from the beginning, is the proven way of establishing society’s welfare. “
We in the Catholic Church understand that Marriage is a Sacrament. To understand that, we must first understand what is meant by "Sacrament". The Catechism states: Sacraments are outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification
According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the sacraments are not mere signs; they do not merely signify Divine grace, but in virtue of their Divine institution, they cause that grace in the souls of men. -- a sign producing grace, is a good, succinct definition of a sacrament of the New Law. Sacrament, in its broadest acceptance, may be defined as an external sign of something sacred.
Back to the Sacrament of Marriage… In this Sacrament we should see reflections of something larger than ourselves. This is a Sacrament, that is a sign or touchstone or intervention into our normal everyday lives of God's presence with and in us. It is where God becomes one with us, and makes a covenant with us, a pledge to us, to promise to be with us in all things.
You see, Christ is a sacrament of God, that is He makes God the Father more visible , that is, He makes God's love for us visible and touchable. He is the sign of God, the Covenant with God. Marriage, then is a Sacrament of Christ, making Christ more visible, that is Christ's love more visible and touchable .
What a concept. To share the love that God shares. A gift that only can come from God. That is why this is a sacrament, to receive the Love shared between the Father and Son as John's Gospel states, " So that they may be one, as we are one…". That husband and wife can share that very same love. All it takes is belief, hearing and doing the Word of God. Can we believe Jesus? If you can, then what He says must be true, and therefore it is possible to share that love that Jesus talks about. We MUST become one in that same love so that we can reflect the Father's glory in His Son. So that in this unity, this oneness, we can become a beacon for the rest of the world. That husband and wife can become that light, that beacon of love for the rest of the family. Seeing this light, this Love, the rest of the family desires that light and love shared between husband and wife, shared with Jesus the Son who shares it with the Father in heaven. With this immense and unlimited love abiding in the couple, they should be able to surmount all the difficulties that may arise. They should be able to not only have love enough for their family, but should be able to extend that love beyond their family to the world that is so in need of love today.
And the world is definitely in need of all married couples to reflect God's love, example it to them. Today's culture does NOT support a sacramental marriage. Today's culture says "Live together and if it gets bad, just call it quits". Today's culture is about multiple lifestyle's and getting what's yours and looking out for myself. Today's culture is not supportive of sacrificial love, of giving oneself for another. Today's culture does not support the idea of spending your life in love for another.
Today's culture looks at marriage as a state recognized tax status, as an agreement to pool resources, as a security transaction to prevent loneliness, as a hedge against old age alone.
Marriage in the church is something far different from what the world thinks it is. You start marriage pledging that you will be "true to each other in good times and bad, in sickness and health, to love and honor each other for all the days of your lives." Marriage is more than consenting to live together and share your lives. It is a consenting to be a reflection of God's love. It is a consenting to be a beacon of God's light to a world which seems steeped in darkness.
In this Sacrament of love, a love shared between three (bride, groom and God) we proclaim God's love for us and God enters into this Covenant in the form of His Son. It is only in this way that this bringing together of two people can have life, life through and in Christ. Without him in this covenant, it is no longer a covenant but just an agreement, a license. But with him, Oh what love can be shared by two.
It is important to understand the marriage vows as the Church does
· Sacred
· Permanent
· Indissoluable (that cannot be dissolved, broken up, lasting, durable)
Love is not so much a decision as it is an encounter with another. In my life, I found that to be true. I did not have so much love that I knew or chose to give it to Pat, my wife of 31 years. When I encountered Pat, it sprang from somewhere within. It grew from a model of an encounter that had occurred in the past and was on-going. It grew from an encounter with an all-loving God.
In "Deus Caritas Est (God is Love)", Pope Benedict says that being Christian is not the result of making an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the result of an encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. As Pope Benedict says in the encyclical, “there is a relationship between love and the Divine; love promises infinity, eternity – a reality far greater and totally other than our everyday existence.”
Your brother in Christ,
Deacon Bruce
Your brother in Christ,
Deacon Bruce
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