Ermahgerd!
I don’t know which one’s more precious…and awesome, this little baby McCartney wannabe or the Zeppelin lovin’ baby I posted a few years ago.
Oh, you glorious internet.
Life on Film: Gattaca
Life TV has released a new episode of Life on Film. This time Brendan, Chelsea and Tim talk about Gattaca, which deals with genetic engineering.
For more on Gattaca and how, 15 years later, the sci-fi thriller is fast becoming our reality, be sure to check out: Gattaca, Cloud Atlas and the Human Future
Ethical Stem Cells Help Child Recover from “PVS” Diagnosis
In case you missed the news, a little boy with cerebral palsy who suffered cardiac arrest and was subsequently determined to be in a “persistent vegetative state”, appears to be recovering thanks to a treatment using his own umbilical cord blood cells. From the story:
After the cord blood therapy, the patient, however, recovered relatively quickly. Within two months, the spasticity decreased significantly. He was able to see, sit, smile, and to speak simple words again. Forty months after treatment, the child was able to eat independently, walk with assistance, and form four-word sentences. “Of course, on the basis of these results, we cannot clearly say what the cause of the recovery is,” Jensen says. “It is, however, very difficult to explain these remarkable effects by purely symptomatic treatment during active rehabilitation.”
Two things that this case should make us think about:
1. The effectiveness of ethically derived stem cells. This doesn’t necessarily constitute a cure, but it’s progress for sure and certainly more than we can say for cells that require the destruction of tiny human beings.
2. That a PVS diagnosis, often used to justify killing patients by no longer giving them nutrition and hydration, is often misdiagnosed. In fact, recent studies have found that over 40% of those diagnosed to be in a PVS are not. Bobby Schindler, brother of Terri Schiavo, has more on that.
TOB Tues: TOB for Kids?
Amid the ongoing debate in the Catholic blogosphere about proper and effective sex education, I came across this post from Dr. Gregory Popcak on whether it’s appropriate to teach the Theology of the Body to children 10 years old or younger. He’s responding to Elizabeth Duffy who thinks that TOB is too complex for young kids. Popcak disagrees saying,
“Teaching TOB to a 10yo, or a 5yo or a baby doesn’t mean sitting them down and saying, “Repeat after me, child. ‘The body and it alone makes visible that which is invisible…’ “)
Oy, vey. I can’t imagine something more stupid or horrible. Elizabeth and anyone else would be absolutely right to be allergic to that idea. Fortunately, I don’t think that’s what teaching TOB to kids really means.
I would suggest that teaching TOB to kids means presenting the Bible as the love story between God and his people that begins and ends in union with him. It means discussing the Catechism in a manner that conveys that it reveals the basics of our quest to understand the intimate heart of God and his loving plan for his people. It means discussing morality, not in terms of rules and punishments and lines we may tiptoe up to but never cross, but as a guide to what it means to be truly loving to ourselves and others. And it means presenting a model of love that is openly physically affectionate, ordered to meeting the unique needs of every family member, is extravagantly generous (and expects extravagant generosity in return), and is rooted in a life of both communal and individual prayer.
Anytime parents do these things, they are teaching TOB to their kids. TOB isn’t supposed to be a subject we study. If that’s all it is, then it is useless even as an intellectual exercise. As an “adequate anthropology” TOB was always intended to be a message we live; the internal structure that guides our thinking, relating, and decision making as we live the gospel of Jesus Christ and labor to build his Kingdom (aka the “Civilization of Love.”)
The TOB, Popcak says, is not an idea or some heady intellectual property, but a way of life that bears witness to the “amazing ability self-donative love has to facilitate the flourishing of the human person.” This is something that can (and should) be taught to children at any age.
Several months ago, Christopher West also had some advice for introducing kids to the concept of the TOB at an early age:
First, we must recognize what a critical responsibility we have as parents to pass on the glory of God’s plan for the body and sexuality to our children. Silence is not an option. When we say nothing, the culture fills the void with its terribly distorted message. But we can’t give what we don’t have. As parents, before we can pass the TOB on to our children, we have to immerse ourselves in it.
The Church teaches that education in God’s plan for sexuality must begin in the womb, and continue uninterrupted throughout all the ages and stages of development. So, obviously, we’re talking about much more than just giving our kids “the talk” when they reach a certain age. We’re talking about a way of living and of embracing life that is itself an education in the meaning of sexuality. We’re also talking about engaging in an ongoing conversation about the meaning, purpose, and dignity of being created as male and female in the image of God. One of the things my wife and I have done with our kids is put this ongoing education in the context of our nightly prayers. Every day since they were born my kids have heard me thanking God for making Mom to be a woman and making me to be a man; for calling us to the sacrament of marriage; and for bringing each of them into the world through Mom and Dad’s love. Then I ask God to help the boys grow into strong men and the girls to grow into strong women and I ask God to teach them how to give their bodies away in love as Jesus loves. Then I pray for their future vocations. Eventually, as they get older they start asking: “What does it mean that I came into the world through your love?” That’s when we start taking the conversation to the next level – based on their age level and understanding – and it unfolds fairly naturally from there.
Resources:
Greg Popack recommends his own books: Beyond the Birds and the Bees: Raising Sexually Whole and Holy Kids and Parenting with Grace: A Catholic Parents’ Guide to Raising (almost) Perfect Kids.
Also, a few years ago, I came across a series of books designed to help parents answer difficult or embarrassing questions about sex comfortably and truthfully (in age appropriate terms), and to encourage healthy communication between parent and child. I’m sure it’s not based on the writings of John Paul II, but it looks pretty solid. Click here to find out more about the God’s Design for Sex series.
Fr. Robert Barron on Marriage and Relationships
If we’re simply looking for love, period, that won’t be enough. You’ll be looking for love in all the wrong places. What you should be looking for is God’s will, God’s purpose. And then find somebody who is as in love with that purpose as you are. Now you’ve found someone to love. -Fr. Robert Barron
Oh, he makes it sound so easy. And what if this love is not returned? This has been the story of my life.
Two Pregnant Women Whose Yeses Changed the World
From my friend Bill Donaghy via Facebook:
Two women, pregnant with new life, whose great Yes to God’s proposals would literally change the world. And people say the Church is patriarchal? She’s matriarchal to the core! Happy Feast of the Visitation!
“Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Lk. 1:42-45)
To Know How to Suffer is to Know How to Live
This week, a fellow Ignitum Today columnist wrote about the connection between the culture of death and our inability to meaningfully connect with human suffering. Her article, which included the quote from Pope Benedict below (emphasis mine), reminded me of an article I wrote myself a few years ago, which I have republished a Catholic Lane for those who may have missed it the first time around.
“In the struggle for life, talking about God is indispensable. Only in this way does the value of the weak, the disabled, the nonproductive, the incurably ill become apparent; only in this way can we relearn and rediscover, too, the value of suffering: the greatest lesson on human dignity always remains the cross of Christ, our salvation has its origins not in what the Son of God did but in [H]is suffering, and whoever does not know how to suffer does not know how to live” –Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, “The Problem of Threats to Human Life.”
The last line of this passage is what really caught my eye for how similar it was to something I read in a book by Fr. Jacques Philippe, which I based my article on: Refusing to Suffer is Refusing to Live
I think another way to phrase both Ratzinger’s and Philippe’s words and what they mean would be: To know how to suffer is to know how to live.
Life is full of ups and downs. It’s easy to “live life to the fullest” when everything’s going our way. But, only when we learn how to persevere through the hard times and embrace life when sufferings befall us can we truly live the fulness of life.
It’s not easy, to be sure. But, to quote another saintly genius, “as long as we are alive, we have all the life there is” (Fr. Richard John Neuhaus). Even in the midst of extreme suffering, even as our bodies deteriorate and we lose control of some of our basic bodily functions, we are still human beings. Our lives still have meaning. And we can still enjoy all the beauty and goodness that life can bring.
Read Emily’s article.
Read my article.
TOB Tues: Homosexuality and the TOB Cont.
Part II of Fr. Peter West’s look at homosexuality and the Theology of the Body:
True love is demanding. The source of the beauty of this love is its demanding nature. That is why true love builds up the true good of man and allows it to radiate to others. St. Paul gives us the definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8:
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
We first learn about love through our parents. Love involves giving ourselves to another. Love helps us grow and mature as persons. True love builds up the good of persons and communities. A good healthy, loving family will have an effect not only on the family members, but the whole community. It is difficult for a person to love who has never experienced love.
Perhaps this is why there is so much confusion about marriage today. So many people have been raised in broken homes. Divorce rates have skyrocketed since the advent of contraception and the “sexual revolution” in the 1960s. But young people are not condemned to repeat the mistakes of their parents. Instead of forsaking marriage for fear of divorce, we need to look back again for God’s original plan for love, sex, marriage and family life that is written on the heart of every man and woman.
7 Cloning Quick Takes
In case you missed the news this week:
1. Scientists Clone Human Embryos To Make Stem Cells
2. This is not the first time human embryos have been cloned, but it is the first time they have survived long enough to either be implanted in a uterus or destroyed for their stem cells (these scientists did the latter).
3. Let the Cloning Obfuscation Begin — Wesley Smith on the misleading info about cloning science in the media. No, scientists did NOT “clone stem cells”. They cloned human embryos, human beings in their earliest stages of development, and harvested them for their stem cells.
4. Cloning Obfuscation 2 — more junk science.
5. Human Cloning Obfuscation 3 — and even more.
6. Three Parent Embryos and the Brave New United States — note that this latest cloning “breakthrough” like the first one, was not done in some underground lab in China, but in the good old USA (Oregon to be exact) where there are no restrictions on this or other once unthinkable kinds of human experimentation currently in practice.
7. Self Regulation Science Doesn’t Work — Wesley Smith again. This is important. It is disturbing how willing we are to leave important ethical decisions up to anybody wearing a white coat. Scientists aren’t necessarily ethicists. And, to quote Pope Benedict:
“If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man’s inner growth (cf. Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16), then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.” (Spe Salvi, 22)
Check out the latest episode of BioTalk for more on what the Catholic Church has to say about biotechnology.
Bonus: Would Human Clones Have Souls? — a few conversations I’ve had with my grandfather and with former MO Governor Matt Blunt about so-called “reproductive” human cloning. Both Wesley Smith and Rebecca Taylor agree that, whether they admit it or not, ultimately this is where researchers want to take this science.
Go see Jen for more QTs!