Old Wine, New Wineskins

An old article on this blog has been given a new lease of life (with illustrations too) on The Prompt webzine.

Do pay a visit to The Prompt for an updated version of an old post I first posted here on Threshold of Hope.

"Are homosexuals welcome in the Catholic Church?” draws strong views

“Are homosexuals welcome in the Catholic Church?” draws strong views

CatholicNews published part one of Father Albert Renckens’ reflection titled “Are homosexuals welcome in the Catholic Church?” in the last issue (CN, Jan 7). We have received many letters commenting on it. Here are some of them.

Are we really ignorant?
Priest’s view is disturbing
Mixed feelings
Shocked
Not in line with church teaching
More confident now in serving church

Eugenia says:

January 27th, 2007 at 9:16 pm

I feel that Catholic News, as commissioned by the Archdiocese of Singapore, has the responsibilty to ensure doctrinally-sound publications. I ask of Catholics News to be extremely discerned and prudent when publishing articles written by people expressing their views on the Church’s doctrine.

We, as Catholics, listen and accept the teachings of the Church. There is no room for debate when it comes to dogmatic doctrines i.e. the Truth. Please do not create the space for confusion.

Read the rest here: http://www.catholic.org.sg/cn/wordpress/?p=1273

I'm too tired to even respond...

YawningBread has a commentary here: http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2007/yax-706.htm
Dominic Chua has a response to these articles:

It was with tremendous sadness and pain that I read the responses to Fr. Renckens’ article "Are Homosexuals welcome in the Catholic Church?" that were printed in the 21 Jan 2007 edition of the Catholic News. If anything, taken together, they constitute a resounding ‘no’ to the question posed by the title of Fr. Renckens’ original article.

It does not seem worthwhile to take each of the responses separately and respond to them in great detail. Rather, it is more important and more constructive to address the highly problematic mindset of intellectual and spiritual torpor and passivity that characterizes all the replies. Collectively, the letters reflect an unwillingness to engage the issue in and of itself, and bleat the same line if something is out of step with Catholic orthodoxy, it cannot and should not be voiced. Some of the responses take this one step further -- if the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) says that something is sinful and wrong, it must be so.

more: http://www.yawningbread.org/apdx_2007/imp-299.htm

The Prompt is back with a bang!

From the editors of The Prompt:

Dear friends,

The Prompt is back with a bang! Three new, thought-provoking articles await you:

* She's no Old Lady who Lived in the Shoe but mother-of-three Patricia Rozario-Tan still faces the Baby Inquisition!

* Young, Restless and Catholic - Part 1 in a series of 3 by Nick Chui that traces the turbulent and exhilarating early years of the Catholic Students' Society in the National University of Singapore.

* Get thee to a nunnery? No need. Professor Donna Orsuto, a lecturer at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, tells Nick Chui about authentic lay spirituality and what a 14th century Italian woman mystic can teach us about that.

http://theprompt.faithweb.com/

The Prompt Be Edified. Be Provoked. Be Prompted.

Suggestions for the Veritas website

Ok. Here are my suggestions for the Veritas website.

The Veritas website currently:

Pros:

• The website provides a comprehensive list of parishes, communities, and organizations (etc.)
• The search engine is working well
• Most of the links are usable

Cons:

• Nothing more that an online church directory.
• Some information is outdated.
• The presentation is staid and does not give a good impression.
• There is no central direction by the archdiocese.

Suggestions:

Step 1: Decide if you want Veritas to be the Official Website of the Catholic church here, or if it should just be the Official Online Church Directory of the Catholic church.

1) If you decide that the website should be an official website, then some money should be raised privately (if the church is not willing to invest in it) to hire a professional web design company, or some relevantly experienced person, to redesign the look of the website.

2) In this website, include some general information about the Catholic church in Singapore.

E.g.
- General information about the Catholic faith and Christianity in general.
- Information about the Catholic Church in Singapore, such as its structure, organisation, mission, activities, agencies, history, etc.
- Information about the RCIA programme, and more direct information about how and where to join.

-or-

3) It could be a simple front page that links to all the various websites of the Catholic church in Singapore.

In other words, if you want it to be a website , then make it a website that caters to the people who might want to view it - people interested in the Catholic Faith, non-Catholics and Catholics who are searching alike. This is a one-time process as it does not require major updating or maintenance subsequently.

The Church Directory function of the current Veritas can still be part of this website. If you decide that it should not be a website but only a Church Directory, then rename the website as an Official Church Directory.

Suggestions for the Church Directory part:

3) Coordinate with the team that publishes the church directory. Information from the publication can be updated to the website . Information will thus be at most one-year old. (This can be done by setting up a computer database)

4) Send out an annual or bi-annual email to all the emails on the database kindly asking for their cooperation in keeping the Online Church Directory up-to-date. Emails that are not replied to can then be considered unusable and should be removed.

These are just a few simple suggestions that I believe quite feasible and helpful. I don't see why they cannot be done if people believe in the usefulness and function of the Veritas website. Please share you comments and thoughts on the matter.

-------------

Here are the previous posts related to the Veritas Website:

Websites of the Catholic Church in Singapore:

http://thresholdofhope.blogspot.com/2006/08/websites-of-catholic-church.html

Comparing the Veritas website:

http://thresholdofhope.blogspot.com/2006/07/comparethe-veritas-website.html

Some background:

I've been using the Veritas website every once in a while to check on addresses and contacts of churches and priests. More than once, the email or contact number of the priest I tried to contact was inaccurate. I also felt a lingering sense of embarrassment each time I visited. It's like walking past a very badly designed poster advertising the Catholic Church and wondering what kind of impression others would have when they walked by and saw it. (*Note: I really appreciate and honour the work the volunteers have put into the website, but this is a real and honest opinion). When Nicholas one day complained to me about the website, and I happened to see the St Mary's website, I decided to ask others to compare the websites and to garner their opinions.

I wanted to know if others were similarly embarrased as Nick and me, and to figure out what can be done about it. We felt that the fundamental problem was the inability of the church administration to see that there was a need to project a good "corporate image" to the general public. If other churches and other organisations could maintain a professional and informative website, why couldn't we? Part of the issue here was that the website was maintained by volunteers, and received no funding. This led to a discussion on why the church needs sometimes to pay for professional services. Volunteers ultimately cannot produce the same results that a dedicated professional can.

The Veritas discussion led to many lessons for me:

1. The local archdiocese does not believe that a professional "corporate image" is important. We should work to change this.
2. The local archdiocese does not want to invest in professional services as it still believes in the spirit of volunteerism. Laypeople should provide the willpower, direction, and funding to move in this direction if they believe in it.
   
3. It is not enough to complain on this blog. We need to make real changes by contacting people and doing something about it.
4. This blog has limited function and appeal. We should do something about it

Perhaps you may wish to reflect on these points as well.

Sincerely,
Chris

Should Catholics read the Da Vinci Code?

I remember when the Catholic News first posted a writeup on The Da Vinci Code, it included a priest (can't remember who) who implied that a good Catholic should not read the book because we should not expose ourselves to falsehood. I disagreed very strongly with that point. A good Catholic should read the book (borrow, don't buy), because many, many people, Christians and non-Christians, have read the book and have formed opinions based on it. To be a Christian in touch with the world is to understand and be able to correct these misconceptions should the opportunity present itself. After all a true, strong faith is one that is forged in fire, and not one sheltered from infancy. It's ironic that the second article by CN is subtitled "some advice from Father Henry Siew to people who cannot resist reading the book".

Just as a point interest, my students in NJC are very much still interested in the book. We set them a response paper asking them to critique a summary of the arguments in the Da Vinci code. Many had excellent responses while some truly believed Dan Brown's arguments.

Also, being very much knowledgable of early Christian belief in the Eucharist, why did Leonardo Da Vinci leave out the chalice in The Last Supper?

Detail of The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci