Deacon’s Blog

A Serbian-Canadian’s reflection of NATO’s involvement in the internal affairs of Serbia. Also recall that NATO bombed Serbia on Easter Sunday. From The Bloody Catholic Easter 1999 by Dr. Vladimir Ajdacic at Swans

Easter is the most sacred and the happiest day for Christians. However, the people of Yugoslavia will never forget Easter 1999. NATO, led by the Americans, carried out vicious bombing attacks on a variety of civilian targets in Yugoslavia. Despite a message and request from the Pope not to bomb during this important Christian holy day, NATO bloodied their hands. The patriarch of the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church, Aleksej II, predicted their actions correctly. NATO’s message, written on the bombs and tomahawk missiles was, “Easter presents to the Serbs”…

Similarly, NATO working outside its bounds in Afghanistan, continues to ‘mis-target’ civilians.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political Ethnicity, freedom, History, immigration, Peace

An interesting article, Twenty years of Victoria Street Ministry for Father Allen Jones, concerning the above named priest, was forwarded to me by E-mail. Fr. Jones was ordained through the Apostolic Catholic Church in Brazil (De Costa line) and appears to do a lot of good work as a simple servant (no pretend-to-be-a-bishop here). I also like the fact that he’s not about ‘changing-the-church,’ but rather about doing good. May God bless his work, humility, and Christian witness.

Christian Witness Charity, Service, Vagantes

Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will be presenting Thursday, February 25, 7PM at Albany Law School on “Military Aid to Israel: Legal, Political, Economic, and Humanitarian Impact.” The presentation is sponsored by the Muslim Law Students Association (MLSA)

Military Aid to Israel: Legal, Political, Economic, and Humanitarian Impact

Thursday, February 25
7:00pm – 9:00pm

Matthew Bender Room 425
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue,
Albany, New York 12208-3494

Between 2009-2018, the United States is scheduled to give Israel $30 billion in military aid. Through its illegal 42-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, Israel has misused U.S. weapons in violation of U.S. law to kill and injure Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian civilian infrastructure, blockade the Gaza Strip, and build illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem. The average American taxpayer will pay $19.19 in military aid to Israel in 2010.

How much of this total will your community provide? Is this a good use of your tax dollars? What role do your taxes, here in Albany, play in perpetuating violence in the Middle East?

The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is a national coalition of nearly 300 organizations working to change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international law, and equality.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political Announcements

Two from Interfaith Worker Justice:

Extend Unemployment and COBRA Now!

Are you unemployed? Do you know someone who is? Urgent action is needed to make sure that Congress extends the lifeline for workers by extending unemployment and COBRA coverage before the end of the month. Your response will help someone put food on the table, keep their lights on and of course, enable them to live with some dignity during this harsh economic climate. Click Here to take action!

This isn’t an issue of slackers who sit around enjoying a check. There are too few jobs for too many unemployed workers, approx. 1 job for every 4 persons unemployed. Further, the skill sets of many unemployed workers will not transfer forward. They will need significant retraining to be prepared for the time when jobs once again become available. Also remember that unemployment assistance, which is temporary help for people who are ready, willing, and able to work, makes an immediate economic impact. Those dollars are spent, returning $1.67 to the economy for every dollar in assistance.

Principles on Jobs

It is time for people of faith to act and bring their moral vision to the national conversation on jobs.

Interfaith Worker Justice has stood with workers in times of economic prosperity and stands with them now in this time of economic crisis. Yet we are continually confronted by stories of workers who want to work but can’t find jobs, workers whose hours have been cut from full time to part time and workers who have been victimized by employers who will not pay them for the work they have done.

Our religious traditions teach us that work is a sacred act, that when we labor we are “God’s hands” on earth. Those who work and those who cannot work must be treated fairly. “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbors work for nothing, and does not give them their wages.” (Jeremiah 22:13)

As people of faith, we call for an economy that provides a good job for everyone who wants and needs one. While it is good and right to pass measures that can put some people back to work, it is not enough. All jobs should be good jobs, paying living wages and benefits, allowing workers dignity and a voice at the workplace, ensuring worker’s health and safety, and guaranteeing their right to organize unions.

IWJ has developed a “Statement of Principles” on Jobs that I have signed. Please join me in signing that principle statement.

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political Labor

If you are planning a wedding there are certain cautions you should take as a member of the PNCC. If your intended is a member of the R.C. Church, and you plan to marry in the PNCC, your intended may face difficulties with their pastor or bishop.

The core problem is that the R.C. Church requires that your intended obtain a “dispensation from canonical form“¹ from their bishop. If they do not, your marriage will not be recognized by the R.C. Church. Note that if your intended does not do so, the Roman Church may consider you to be “living in sin.”

For years, the dialog between the PNCC and RC Churches has tried to resolve this issue (as well as the ability of PNCC members to stand as godparents in the RC Church). The PNCC has repeatedly requested that the Roman Church do away with this requirement. The main difference between the Apostolic Churches is that the sacrament in both the PNCC and Orthodox Churches² are based on one sacramental theology while that theology differs in the Roman Church. In the PNCC and Orthodox Churches the priest is the minister of the sacrament. In the Roman Church the couple is said to be the minister of the sacrament.

Also of note, if you plan to marry in the R.C. Church, some priests therein may deny the Eucharist to your intended and their family. You do need to cover this issue with them in advance. If they insist that they cannot give your intended’s parents or family communion, grab the nearest pew missal and point to the section in the back regarding admittance to the Eucharist. If that doesn’t help — well that priest (or deacon) isn’t following the rules, so you may want to seek marriage in your PNCC parish.

Both of these problems are roadblocks placed in the way of PNCC members who attempt to practice and hold true to their faith. It has also been noted that some R.C. pastors and bishops have made the process of obtaining a dispensation extremely cumbersome for those intending to marry a member of the PNCC. Of course this is an attempt to coerce members of the PNCC.

While we may not like something, we should respect the theology of the R.C. Church³. We do expect them to respect ours in turn. So it comes down to politics and certain Roman bishops and priests who wish to “drive the point home” in opposition to the Roman Church’s own teaching on admission to Eucharist and avoidance of coercion.

So, take note and plan ahead. Talk to your intended’s pastor and attempt to obtain the “paperwork.” If you are marrying in his parish do cover the issue of Eucharistic reception because there have been well noted cases of grandma getting up to go to communion and being told to go away. That’s not the sort of sadness you need on your wedding day.

Christian Witness, PNCC, Perspective Church, Ecumenism, Sacraments, Theology

The Economist had a really interesting story on the psychology of power in its January 23rd issue. See Absolutely.

What was unsettling about the article wasn’t the study itself, or even its findings, but rather the author’s conclusion:

However, an intriguing characteristic emerged among participants in high-power states who felt they did not deserve their elevated positions. These people showed a similar tendency to that found in low-power individuals—to be harsh on themselves and less harsh on others—but the effect was considerably more dramatic. They felt that others warranted a lenient 6.0 on the morality scale when stealing a bike but assigned a highly immoral 3.9 if they took it themselves. Dr Lammers and Dr Galinsky call this reversal “hypercrisy”.

They argue, therefore, that people with power that they think is justified break rules not only because they can get away with it, but also because they feel at some intuitive level that they are entitled to take what they want. This sense of entitlement is crucial to understanding why people misbehave in high office. In its absence, abuses will be less likely. The word “privilege” translates as “private law”. If Dr Lammers and Dr Galinsky are right, the sense which some powerful people seem to have that different rules apply to them is not just a convenient smoke screen. They genuinely believe it.

What explains hypercrisy is less obvious. It is known, though, from experiments on other species that if those at the bottom of a dominance hierarchy show signs of getting uppity, those at the top react both quickly and aggressively. Hypercrisy might thus be a signal of submissiveness—one that is exaggerated in creatures that feel themselves to be in the wrong place in the hierarchy. By applying reverse privileges to themselves, they hope to escape punishment from the real dominants. Perhaps the lesson, then, is that corruption and hypocrisy are the price that societies pay for being led by alpha males (and, in some cases, alpha females). The alternative, though cleaner, is leadership by wimps.

Rather stark: Be led by the immoral and unethical, or be led by the weak.

The problem of course is that business is unethical at its roots because its core motivations are not based on a system of ethics. The Economist, being the creature that it is, places no stress whatsoever on ascribing to a system of comprehensive ethics. They would likely agree that the strongest motivation in business is profit. As such the alphas tend to succeed because they stay married to the goal and its achievement, regardless of cost. I would bet that if slavery were legal again, and it could be carried off economically, business would opt for the lower cost of production.

In discussion of business ethics the maxim: ‘unethical behavior invites risk’ is often cited. But what is the risk? The risk (if you are not a believer) is jail, fines, and lawsuits. Others state, ‘unethical business practices create ill-will among customers,’ usually coupled with ‘unethical businesses are bound to fail.’ I would posit that these maxims only point to the most obvious examples like ENRON, rather than the stuff that has been swept under the rug.

There’s a great History of Business Ethics by Richard T. De George that points to the religious underpinnings of ethics and the evolution of business ethics. When Good People Do Bad Things at Work by Dennis J. Moberg points to behaviors that contribute to unethical business behavior. To his point about Moral Exclusion:

A final problem that brings out the worst in good people is the very human tendency to morally exclude certain persons. This occurs when individuals or groups are perceived as outside the boundary in which moral values and considerations of fairness apply.

This applies not only in the way he envisions, but in the reverse. As the Economist article points out, business leaders and people of power ordinarily and regularly exclude themselves from moral behavior.

To the Economist article, I would say that while we may self-stratify, we should take efforts to encourage the powerful and those without power to act ethically. This may involve boundaries, and the admission that faith values play a key formative role in people’s behaviors wherever they may be in the strata (I would love to see the study data tied to the religious upbringing and current faith practices of its respondents). But would the common values found in faith and moral codes make us all wimps?

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political Ethics

I absolutely got a kick out of the recent story of a plane that was “forced” to land because an Orthodox Jew was doing his morning prayers. The story from the BBC covers it succinctly. There’s a lot of other ones out there too.

My immediate thought is that Christians should know this. Not sure any of the flight crew was Christian, there’s fewer and fewer of us around anymore, but if they were they should have recalled Jesus words in Matthew 23:5

They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long

In other words, they should have known better.

Of course Jesus was talking about the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees who did things in big ways only to be seen and recognized, not because they believed in what they were doing. Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely against Christians doing any type of Jewish ritual (we don’t need no Seders or tefillin for salvation), but we should know these things because our roots are in these very rituals. We should also take the time to know what Jesus was talking about, what He practiced, and what He was referring to.

For the uninitiated, from Wikipedia:

Phylacteries or tefillin (Hebrew: תפלין‎) are two boxes containing Biblical verses and the leather straps attached to them which are used in traditional Jewish prayer. This practice is derived from commands found in the Biblical books of Exodus and Deuteronomy (Exodus 13:9, Exodus 13:16, Deuteronomy 6:8, Deuteronomy 11:18).

Christian Witness, Perspective Biblical, Education, History

Some nice photos etc. from my home Parish, Holy Name and from Transfiguration Parish in Wallington, NJ which was invited to St. Michael’s Byzantine Catholic Cathedral in Passaic, NJ.

Christian Witness, PNCC Ecumenism, Photos, Prayer

O merciful God, Father of the Crucified Christ! In every sorrow which awaits us may we look up to Thee without doubt or fear, persuaded that Thy mercy is ever sure. Thou cannot fail us. There is no place or time where Thou art not. Uphold us in our grief and sorrow, and in our darkness visit us with Thy light. We are Thine; help us, we beseech Thee, in life and in death to feel that we are Thine. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. — A Prayer In Time of Sorrow from A Book of Devotions and Prayers According to the Use of the Polish National Catholic Church.

Per the Young Fogey: the R.C. Bishop of Port-au-Prince along with many priests and seminarians were killed in the earthquake. There are many opportunities for charity available. Please give to help those in need. A full list of reputable organizations providing relief can be found at the Huffington Post.

Christian Witness, Current Events, PNCC Charity, Ecumenism, Family and Friends, Prayer

From the Buffalo News: Worshippers rejoice as closed church reopens with Christmas Eve service

With its plain white clapboards and a cross atop a small steeple, the former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Brant looks every bit like a postcard country church.

Since closing last year, it has been little more than an image.

But on Christmas Eve, the building at 10708 Brant-Angola Road reopened as an active house of worship for the first time in 18 months.

And many of the same faithful Catholics who had worshipped there showed up to celebrate the unique holiday gift.

“God knew how hard we struggled or how much we wanted this, and we thought we were going to be able open on Thanksgiving,” said Joan Reickart, a longtime parishioner. “But I think God gave us our Christmas gift. This was our Christmas gift. I truly believe that. And it’s a wonderful Christmas gift, the best we could hope for.”

About 50 people were expected at the inaugural Mass of the Parish of Our Lady—a new congregation affiliated with the Polish National Catholic Church.

“Opening on Christmas Eve seems pretty divine,” Brant Supervisor Leonard Pero said. “I’m just thrilled we save our community church. The community is getting a wonderful Christmas present, and the thing is, we’ll always have it.”

The congregation, composed of several people who were once part of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, purchased the building last week from the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo for $75,000.

“The excitement among the people is just unbelievable,” said John Chiavetta, who with Pero led efforts to reopen the church.

Some members of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which was merged with St. Anthony Catholic Church in Farnham, openly objected to their church’s closure and immediately sought a way to keep it open.

“I was praying all the time to the Blessed Mother,” Pero said. And at the final Mass, Pero sat in the front row and cried.

Reickart said she felt “kind of lost” since the church closed.

“I’ve really been hurting for a place to go,” she said.

Ultimately, Pero organized a meeting between potential parishioners and officials of the Polish National Catholic Church, a denomination formed in 1897 as a result of splits within Catholic communities of Polish-Americans from the Roman Catholic Church in disputes over property and lay governance.

Unlike the Roman Catholic tradition, in which bishops make property decisions, individual congregations in the Polish National Catholic Church, as in many Protestant traditions, control such matters.

Bishop Thaddeus S. Peplowski of the Buffalo Pittsburgh Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church has assured Buffalo Bishop Edward U. Kmiec that the church won’t actively seek to recruit former members of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Any Roman Catholic who joins the Polish National Catholic Church is considered excommunicated in the eyes of the Vatican.

“People who are fearful of that, we’re telling them, ‘Just attend,’ ” Chiavetta said.

Some former Our Lady of Mount Carmel members aren’t bothered by the prospect of excommunication, but “for others, yes it has been difficult,” he said. “Especially for older people, they hear this thing excommunication, and they think that’s a very serious matter.”

But church laws were far from the minds of most worshippers Thursday.

After Mass, they celebrated in the church hall with a sausage dinner and a birthday cake in honor of Jesus.

“Christmas, it is the birth of Christ and a new beginning here,” Reickart said. “It’s wonderful.”

Christian Witness, PNCC Buffalo, Christmas, Democratic Church