Prayers for Little Mary

Friends of ours are going through a real Way of Sorrows right now, and they continue to plead for prayers from the larger Church for their baby girl. You can learn more about little Mary's story here but for now, this is the latest from the Coffey's:

"Today was a difficult day. Now is the time, everyone please, to form one voice in pleading to God for Mary's healing. Her surgeon told us today that he does not expect Mary to recover and it would be a miracle if she did. His words were kind, but the facts remain. Despite those facts, there is great cause for hope. God is good all the time. The doctors said she needs a miracle.. well.. there is no doubt that if Mary lives it will be all to the glory of God. So please pray hard, pray now, offer up whatever you can for Mary's healing, and we will leave the rest to God in His infinite mercy...."

You can find special prayers at the website just for this intention, and more on Mary's condition. This faith-filled family has been a powerful example to so many. Please remember them in your prayers.

Daddy's Here.... Mommy's Here!

Our son is teething, which is the adult equivalent of having your skeleton slowly pulled to the outside of your body over a period of months. Needless to say, I'm glad I have no recollection of this happening to me. Perhaps this is why most of our first memories only go back to say, our 4th or 5th year of life.

So teething makes for some looong nights for all of us, especially mommy, who continues to amaze me with her lightning fast tenderness and penchant for turning anything into a soothing melody. We dole out lots of whispered songs and stories, walks down the hall and back again, and heartfelt assurances that "Mommy's here" and "Daddy's here." What else can we say?

We could try something like: "Listen little one, you're getting your teeth. You're going to love them! They will help you chew up your food. You'll be able to eat lots of new things with your teeth, things you couldn't eat before. Your teeth will help you talk to mommy and daddy and ask them all sorts of things because your teeth will work with your tongue to form words. And your teeth will bring a whole new gift to the world; your smile! It will be a way to let others know you are happy to see them or that something gives you joy. Teeth are a great gift! Trust me... it's going to be OK.... Daddy's here with you!"

And he would respond with something like: "AAAAAAAGHAHGHHGRR?#@!?WW"

I think we Big People can learn a little something about suffering from all of this pain our little ones go through. After all, I'm discovering that God the Father has written countless lessons for me right in the flesh and blood book of my family life.

"Everything speaks to me."

Don't we cry too in our moments of "spiritual" teething? We cry our, "God, why did such and such have to happen? Why didn't You stop this or that from happening? Why is there evil in the world? Why do the innocent suffer? And what is this painful longing and this aching thirst in me that I can never seem to quench in this world?"

The Father could try saying something like: "Listen little ones, you're getting your heart. You're going to love it! It will help you chew up the food of your experiences. You'll be able to taste lots of new things with your heart, things you couldn't swallow before. Your heart will help you talk to Daddy and Mommy and ask them all sorts of things because your heart will work with your mind to form words. And your heart will bring a whole new gift to the world; your spirit! It will be a way to let others know you are happy to see them or that something gives you joy. The heart is a great gift! Trust me... it's going to be OK.... Daddy's here with you!"

How do we respond to a Word like that?

Rebecca Sings

Rebecca has such a gift for song - both in writing and in singing. I'm privileged to hear it every day, in the snippets and snatches of tunes she sings to our little boy. Now I finally caught her live at a coffee house we recently attended! The video was a little choppy, so I have tossed in a bunch of our pictures to set a nice "celtic mood" So.... here she sings! Enjoy!

Listen to Papa

"In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world." - Genesis 41 Pope Benedict's new encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth), which was recently released, the G8 Summit, and the Old Testament story of Joseph have formed a triple play that has me dazzled by God's Providence. Popes often put forth encyclical or "circular" letters to the world, addressed most often to the faithful in the Church, and to "all men and women of good will." Essentially, they are like snapshots of the current state of affairs, seen through the eyes of Mother Church, intended to advise, instruct, comfort, and challenge Her kids to stay on the right path as we make our way through the world. The real gift of these letters is that they are soaked in God's Word (revelation, faith) and in the human experience (the social sciences, reason). The ink flows from the Church's unprecedented 2000 year old memory and experience. These letters are like pure gold. But, I must say, this gold lies too often in a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea of history, just waiting to be discovered. In light of the economic crisis recently gripping the world, we've all been given a healthy reminder of the fragility and transitory taste of earthly goods. Mother Teresa once put forth the idea that America, big, bold, and bright America, might in fact be an impoverished nation. Not of course in the material sense, but spiritually. We've lost our greatest treasure: each other. The beauty and dignity of the human person! "Man is not a lost atom in a random universe: he is God's creature, whom God chose to endow with an immortal soul and whom he has always loved." - Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI At the recent Group of Eight meeting, the leaders of the world's most industrialized nations gathered in Italy, to consider the future, to make decisions of incredible magnitude that will ultimately affect all of humanity. I pray that our leaders will pay heed to the words just penned by Papa Benedict. He wrote them with the greatest care and tenderness, with eyes that have carefully and prayerfully watched God's children fumble and falter through many recent sorrows and sufferings (many of which have fallen on us because of our own greed and short-sightedness). Finally, the relevance of the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. The world is hungry, and the world is seeking nourishment. Joseph has been put in charge of the world's grain. Joseph Ratzinger has been appointed the Chief Steward of God's Church on earth. Pope Benedict is offering us all food that will truly fill us, if we but have the humility to come to the Church and ask for this bread. Will the world's leaders read his words? I pray they do, for the charity and truth they reveal is exactly what we need in this time of great famine. "God is the guarantor of man's true development, inasmuch as, having created him in his image, he also establishes the transcendent dignity of men and women and feeds their innate yearning to "be more"." - Pope Benedict XVI

Pope's New Encyclical - Caritas in Veritate

Esteemed Catholic Nerds, The moment has come; our "sleeping bags on the cyber-sidewalk outside the Vatican at 4am moment" is over! Today the Pope released his 3rd Encyclical!! Caritas in Veritate (Love in Truth) ... WOOT! WOOT! Benedict XVI has said "this document... intends to focus on some aspects of the integral developments of our time, in the light of love in truth."

SOME QUICK GEMS:

"Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite."

"Charity in truth places man before the astonishing experience of gift. Gratuitousness is present in our lives in many different forms, which often go unrecognized because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life. The human being is made for gift, which expresses and makes present his transcendent dimension."

- Pope Benedict XVI

The USCCB has a nice summary of CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING to give us some foundation on its blog here.

Peace and Incense, Bill

Happy Dependence Day!

I think "independence" is overrated. Seriously. So we can vote, drive, use ATMs, and pick up an assortment of wine coolers at the Quickie Mart without question. Big deal! This independence thing has gotten alot of us grownups into heaps of trouble, by the way.

I think we independent adults could learn alot from the little ones here. We have a 10 month old baby boy, and he is radically dependent on us, his parents. He has no worries. No car payments. No mortgage. No meetings, no consequences (until the age of reason of course), and no one cares if he toots in public. In fact, we all think it's cute. Everything is cute. He is driven, coddled, cared for 24/7. We carry him, change him, feed him, and all he has to do is LET US DO THIS FOR HIM. In other words, be dependent on us.... Let us love him... Receive the gifts of his father and mother and just wallow in their superfluous care. Is anybody thinking what I'm thinking?

This radical "dependence" is the way to go! So I hearby declare this Sunday, the 5th of July.... Dependence Day! Dependence on Our Father Who Art in Heaven for everything. Dependence on our Blessed Mother Mary's care, who too was and is the model of dependence on the Father. Let us let them carry, coddle, and care for us in our deepest needs this day.

Isn't this the goal of freedom anyway? It's not a gift to be squandered on ourselves, but one to be given back in trust. I love you is ultimately to say "I depend on you. I am under your eyes, I am lying helpless in your arms. Have your way with me." Paradoxically, becoming dependent on God is what "liberates" us! The more I receive from Him, the more I depend on Him, the more I can give to my wife and son and the micro-world of persons I encounter in my daily walk. So Happy Dependence Day to all! Dependence on the One from Whom all Freedom flows!

Peter versus Mary

Does the Church believe that men are better than women? Why can't women be priests? When is the Vatican going to break free of this outdated patriarchal system of "government" and get with the times?

Hmmm. On this feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, the rocks on which the Church was built, I wonder if in certain circles, these questions aren't stirred up again with new ardor.

The mystics tell us that there are two dimensions to life, two movements of the heart, two approaches to reality and spirituality. They are as big and as cosmic as Earth and Sky, Sun and Moon, Masculine and Feminine. They are the Petrine Way and the Marian Way.

Many of us tend to plod along in our faith journey following the Petrine Way; named after St. Peter, impetuous, lovable, "open mouth insert foot" Peter. It is active, leaps ahead, goes, grabs, speaks with passion and is a very productive way, no doubt. Generally speaking, it has masculine characteristics. To get closer to God, I'm going to "do" this or that.... get involved in a group, knock on doors, do the stations every day, read the entire Bible in a year, etc. It springs forth from us, from our initiative.

There's nothing wrong with it. It's the active branch of the Active/Contemplative paradigm that makes up the Christian Way of life. In the Martha and Mary gospel story, this is Martha.

But it is not the only way to live in the Spirit that God has poured into our hearts. In fact, the primordial way, the first way, the fundamental posture for those who thirst for the Holy Spirit is the Marian Way, modelled after Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This in fact, is the "better part" that Martha's sister chose, and Jesus said it shall not be taken from her. This Way is receptive, it waits, receives, is still. It listens to Words and contemplates the Word. By no means, incidentally, is it to be confused with passivity. This is (paradoxically) an active listening, and eager expectation that the Gift of God should be done unto me, should be given unto me! This Way leads to our being filled with God. Mother Teresa knew this well. She said only the heart that is empty can be filled. The receptive heart is empty of agendas, aggressive opining, over analyzing. It is essentially feminine. And the saints and mystics say that in relation to God we are all of us feminine...

Guys, this is NOT an affront to our manhood. It simply means that God is Creator, we are creature. It means God (Who is neither male or female) is essentially "masculine" - He initiates, He gives, He impregnates, and we respond, we receive, we are filled with the seed of His Divine Life.

So who's "better" - man or woman? Well, no answer really. Both are creatures equal in dignity, called to respond, receive, conceive the Divine Life. But at the same time, Peter's shining moments did come to him when he was essentially "receptive" - when he stopped talking and started taking in what God was saying to him.

Jesus said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

It seems clear that in that moment, Peter "looked up" - he opened his mind and heart and received that Word from the Father. This was Peter's Marian moment. Perhaps this is why Pope John Paul II called Mary the icon of all humanity, and called for a rediscovery of the "feminine genius" in our times.... our overly productive, aggressively masculine times. Why he called woman God's masterpiece.

Just some thoughts to shed light on more questions. We need both ways, but the foundation lies in the feminine. Let's ponder this one some more today. Am I first a receiver of God's gifts? Or do always make the first move, on my own, from my own strength, my own agenda?

"Only those who have learned to remain with Jesus, are ready to be sent by Him to evangelize."

- Pope John Paul II

Keep On Keepin' On

I think we can all relate to this. What a comfort to see the others who've "failed" somewhere along the line too, only to get back in there and fight! Endurance, persistence, and perhaps a little stubbornness can make all the difference in the world. This also reminds of the line from Neil Diamond's "Done Too Soon." (I know, I know... you never realized how much we can get out of Neil D. huh?) He lists a vast array of people from throughout history and connects them all with this moving verse.... And each one there Has one thing shared: They have sweated beneath the same sun, Looked up in wonder at the same moon, And wept when it was all done For bein' done too soon, For bein' done too soon....

Let's take a look today at the faces around us and beside us, family, friends; at the faces plastered on billboards and magazines and on the silver screen if we catch a movie this weekend. Are we any different on the inside? Are we not all seeking the same things in the end? Did we not all begin the same way, fumble, falter, feel at some point alone, abandoned, rejected, amazed, dazed, captured and captivated by this Journey called Life? We have more in common than we think. We are called to be one; one amazing, holy, and happy communion of persons! The only thing that can separate this is sin. The only thing that can keep us from finding ourselves is the refusal to give ourselves as a gift to each other!

Mission El Salvador

I had the chance to upload some images from a mission trip to El Salvador from 2001. I can't believe it's been that long. Some of the faces and places I encountered on this trip are still very fresh in my memory. There is nothing like the experience of crossing that bridge, entering into another's existence, and just being with them. The time I spent was very brief, but I will never forget it! Thanks to Maryknoll missioners Tim and Ellen O'Connell and Marybeth Gallagher for their hospitality and for their passionate witness to mission!

Sea and Believe

I love the ocean. It helps me believe in things much larger than me. Transcendent things, eternal things; Beauty, Peace, The Oneness. Ultimately... God. Standing before the sea this morning, here in cloudy/sunny Sea Isle City, I had a physical encounter with a spiritual truth. The sea became a channel of grace. And that's the definition of a sacrament, in a very broad sense. I wasn't alone either. Other daily communicants were gathering for this celebration of the sun, rising in benediction over the new day. Does this sound scandalous? Let's recall that the world was God's first church, or Temple, as the Hebrews saw it. In the beginning, we were all priestly in our vocation of praise and worship to the One Who fashioned it all from nothing. We've spent two nights here and are leaving soon. So I had my farewell coffee sitting in the sand, while Rebecca and the wee lad slept. I snapped this picture with the phone, then just stared and listened for a while as the slow, rhythmic beat of the heart of the sea came into me. Ponderings... Who was the first ancient soul to build a craft and seek to cross this watery road to the world's edge? That took some guts. What is it about the lapping up of water on sand, endlessly, that stirs me, invites me, into endless peace? I truly believe we're drawn to the sea because God is still speaking through it; His first sacramental encounter with us. He sings through it's salty symphony, He shines in the sun!

Open Up and Say "Awe"

"Entrances to holiness are everywhere. The possibility of ascent is all the time. Even at unlikely times and through unlikely places."

- Bamidbar Rabba

Our little boy is captivated by absolutely everything. He is nine months old; his little eyes are brand new, his tiny ears are brand new, and his little soul is like a sponge absorbing EVERYTHING.

We watch in amazement as the little nuances of sunlight on a wall capture his attention, or the corners and colors of his toy blocks become like the facets of a diamond in his hands. The other day, he amused himself with a plastic cup for about 15 minutes, turning it over and over again in his fingers, crinkling it, bending it, chewing on it. It was hilarious too watch, and humbling at the same time. Humbling that something so ordinary could capture his attention for so long...

Our little boy is teaching us as parents, with our 30 something eyes and ears and hearts, to see everything as if fresh from the Hands of God. These are the days of living wonder for him... and for us.

THE BIG PICTURE

Catholics are back in "Ordinary Time," liturgically speaking, but beware... this is just when the most extraordinary things can happen. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, I think we're given the power to see things in their true light, finally.

Our boy is still dripping with the waters of Baptism; he can see. But with the gift of the Spirit, we too can "see." Finally, the veil of mediocrity, of ennui, of agenda, or mere utility (only seeing a thing as a thing for our use) is pulled away. The Spirit is our Divine Physician making a house call, inviting us to open up our mouths and say "awe." To be captivated again. Behold! The world is full of gratuitous beauty! Faces, places, colors, sounds take on all the freshness which they had for us when we were young and the world was new.

Further, we can with the gift of the Holy Spirit go into those places we once feared the most; the inner depths of our own hearts, those locked rooms, those shadowlands that we thought we're unapproachable by anyone, including ourselves, let alone God. Now, He whispers, let's "lower our nets for a catch." And He says, "Fear not," reminding us that we are truly called to be like little children, and that He Who Is Our Father will take us into those places by the Hand.

May God grant us "old heads" the grace to become little again. To rediscover everything, to see every object and every subject, every thing and every person as a gift from the Hands of the Father. From the ordinary and mundane to the extraordinary and sublime...

"To see the miraculous within the ordinary is the mark of highest wisdom." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Academic Meets Evangelist... Dr. Michael Healy's Response to Christopher West

Christopher West: A Von Hildebrandian’s Perspective

"As professor of philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville, I have been teaching a course on the nature of love, using Von Hildebrand, Wojtyla, Pieper, and Kierkegaard (among others) for nearly three decades. I have known of Christopher West’s work more indirectly through the decidedly good influences his works have had on my children. However, this past Wednesday, June 3, I got the chance to finally meet Mr. West. It was my privilege to put on a joint presentation with him on purity and sexuality sponsored by the Personalist Project. Nearly two hundred were in attendance, including a great many young people, most I’m sure drawn by the prospect of hearing Christopher—who is a bit more well-known than I...." Read on here at the Personalist Project website...

The Two Towers - Boy Wonder Returns!

Yes, clearly I DO have too much time on my hands.... I'm a teacher who's off for the summer. What'd ya expect? Enjoy the second installment of the Tower of Binky... the Two Towers! (Coming soon, Return of the Binky!)

The Poet Michelangelo

I just stumbled on this moving passage from a poem (yes, he was a poet too) of Michelangelo's. Listen to the strain in his heart's voice as he looks beyond the veil of earthly life to what lies just where the horizon tips. Incredibly moving! The course of my long life hath reached at last, In fragile bark o'er a tempestuous sea, The common harbor, where must rendered be Account of all the actions of the past. The impassioned phantasy, that, vague and vast, Made art an idol and a king to me, Was an illusion, and but vanity Were the desires that lured me and harassed. The dreams of love, that were so sweet of yore, What are they now, when two deaths may be mine, - One sure, and one forecasting its alarms? Painting and sculpture satisfy no more The soul now turning to the Love Divine, That opened, to embrace us, on the cross its arms.

Three is the Magic Number

The following is taken from Pope Benedict's address on this Feast of the Holy Trinity:

Today we contemplate the Most Holy Trinity as it was made know to us by Jesus. He revealed to us that God is love “not in the unity of a single person, but in the Trinity of a single substance” (Preface): the Trinity is Creator and merciful Father; Only Begotten Son, eternal Wisdom incarnate, dead and risen for us; it is finally the Holy Spirit, who moves everything, cosmos and history, toward the final recapitulation. Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit is love. God is love and only love, most pure, infinite and eternal love. The Trinity does not live in a splendid solitude, but is rather inexhaustible font of life that unceasingly gives itself and communicates itself. We can in some way intuit this, whether we observe the macro-universe: our earth, the planets, the stars, the galaxies; or the micro-universe: cells, atoms, elementary particles. The “name” of the Most Holy Trinity is in a certain way impressed upon everything that exists, because everything that exists, down to the least particle, is a being in relation, and thus God-relation shines forth, ultimately creative Love shines forth. All comes from love, tends toward love, and is moved by love, naturally, according to different grades of consciousness and freedom. “O Lord, our Lord, / how wondrous is your name over all the earth!” (Psalm 8:2) -- the Psalmist exclaims. In speaking of the “name” the Bible indicates God himself, his truest identity; an identity that shines forth in the whole of creation, where every being, by the very fact of existing and by the “fabric” of which it is made, refers to a transcendent Principle, to eternal and infinite Life that gives itself, in a word: to Love. “In him,” St. Paul says, on the Areopagus in Athens, “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). The strongest proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: only love makes us happy, because we live in relation, and we live to love and be loved. Using an analogy suggested by biology, we could say the human “genome” is profoundly imprinted with the Trinity, of God-Love.

Beauty as Teacher

This is a word from the late, great Pope John Paul II. I was scrolling through some old drafts for the blog and found it. As the summer begins to dawn upon us, and we plan our getaways, let's give this one some fertile ground in the heart, and keep our eyes open to such graced moments!

"It is evident that nature, things, people, are able to cause astonishment because of their beauty. How is it possible not to see, for example, in a sunset in the mountains, in the immensity of the sea, in the features of a face something that is attractive and, at the same time, compels one to know more profoundly the reality that surrounds us?.... Truth is perceived in the beautiful, which attracts to itself through the unmistakable fascination that springs from great values. Thus feeling and reason find themselves radically united in an appeal addressed to the whole person. Reality, with its beauty, makes one feel the beginning of the fulfillment and seems to whisper to us: 'You will not be unhappy; the desire of your heart will be fulfilled, what is more, it is already being fulfilled."

The Tower of Binky!

Well, what can I say? Give me a half day of school and a free afternoon while Rebecca runs some errands... and you get this piece of cinematic delight! Me and the Boy gettin' silly!

Lord of the Ringtones

Are we addicted to our gadgets? Have iPods become our igods? I was struck by this article on a few levels... and I'm not gonna lie, at first glance, we were nervousss, preciousss... that they wanted to take it from usss, preciousss!

The main point addressed was captured here: So, the answer seems simple: Like the One Ring, mobile electronic devices are too powerful for mere mortals to wield without corruption. They inevitably lead to disturbance, disruption, and disaster. Or do they? ... On the spiritual side, anyone can reference prayers, sacred texts (in the traditional sense), and fellowship with co-believers anytime, anywhere. (One of us spent the Jewish holiday of Purim tracking the reading of the scroll of Esther on his iPhone, complete with special noise-making software. The other enjoyed Lenten prayers using this iPhone app.)

Hmmmm... read on!

The Boy Who Saved Us

God sure knew what He was doing when He decided that the human species would be able to procreate and raise little humans. For one thing, I see it as His ingenious way of getting the male component outside of their own heads once and for all. Ladies, I imagine you need sweet liberation from your own mental gymnastics of self-seeking fulfillment too, from time to time.

I have discovered that babies have the potential to pull the selfless out of the selfish. When you become a Mommy or a Daddy, powers are unleashed that could not have been extracted in any other way, except perhaps through some great trauma or suffering or epiphany. It's amazing, exhausting, exhilarating.... "It is life nearest the bone where it is sweetest."

Our nearly 9 month old baby boy continues to astound, capture, and captivate our hearts on a daily basis. We wake and walk the halls at 3am, and love it. We hear him cry and we run to him. He poops, or should I say explodes, and we think, get this, that it's cute. And we want to clean it up. We sing to him all day long, and Daddy, over-productive, always reading, writing, e-mailing, planning, or presenting Daddy has been wasting time, squandering time, spilling out time doing nothing (read here everything) with his son. Including making random YouTube videos of his antics... The Boy Wonder discovers the Blues!

Rebecca and I look back at the now seemingly short 5 years of infertility that began our marriage; the days of waiting and longing for a life to share our life with, of the periods when literally everyone we knew was pregnant, or holding a little one in their arms. Our days of seeking help, of discovering adoption at the embryonic level, of Snowflakes, of more sorrows, of miscarriages and then moments with our little Gracie, so sweet and so sad and so short-lived. We were in the Barren Desert, again and again. We were trying hard not to grasp at children as if they were a right. We still hold fast to the truth that all life is a gift, and the timing is in God's time.

That time is now! Now this most unexpected gift of our son has come! And the years dissipate like thin wisps of mourning mist. And the years of "just us" (which in itself was so full and so rich) has only served to heighten our senses and sensitivities to this Small Wonder of a Boy. Every smile, every giggle, every tear, every thing is a grace. So God surely knows and knew what He was doing. We just had to wait it out, and will again in some new form down the road, I'm sure. I just hope we remember the simple truth that "good things come to those who wait."

And that, my friends, is the understatement of the year!

Moral Theologian Says Christopher West's Work is 'Completely Sound'

Dr. Janet Smith holds the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. In her article at CatholicExchange.com, she responds to Dr. David Schindler's critique of Christopher West's approach to the Theology of the Body. For his article, click here. For the origin of this debate, click here!

Here, I want to offer a brief, partial, response to Prof. David Schindler’s assessment of West’s work. The fact that Nightline got a lot wrong about West’s work is not surprising. In fact, it is surprising how much it got right. Those of us who work with the media know that potential martyrdom awaits us at the hands of an editor. West has likely been suffering a kind of crucifixion over the past week. What is puzzling is that an influential scholar chose this moment to issue a weeping, negative critique of West in such a public forum. I have great respect for the work and thought of Schindler and realize that it must be difficult to be on the receiving end of criticisms of the work of one of their most high profile graduates. I wish, however, he had found another occasion to express his reservations about West’s work.... (continue reading)

For the latest response from Dr. Michael Waldstein, click here. He is the Max Seckler Professor of Theology at Ave Maria University. He previously served as founding president of the International Theological Institute in Gaming, Austria, and was the St. Francis of Assisi Professor of New Testament there. He is a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family and is a Distinguished Fellow of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He holds the degrees of B.A. from Thomas Aquinas College in California, Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Dallas, S.S.L. from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and a Th.D. in New Testament from Harvard Divinity School. His published works include his definitive translation of John Paul II's Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, The Common Good in St. Thomas and John Paul II (Nova et Vetera), and Dietrich von Hildebrand and St. Thomas Aquinas on Goodness and Happiness (Nova et Vetera).