Heretics Followup

In a recent post I noted that I just finished rereading Heretics by G. K. Chesterton, and that I planned to read some of the works and writers he mentioned. I just finished two of those: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw.

Wilde's play was an amusing bit of fluff. There plot - such as it was - seemed really just intended to provide a framework on which to hang witticisms. The characters were shallow, and the resolution, well, everybody get married!

Shaw's play also ended with possible marriages. But there was a bit more depth to the characters, the dialogue and plot were more plausible, and there was some social criticism.

I can now say I've read both. Of the two, I prefer Shaw's play. But I don't feel the need to read more of his plays at this point.

Pax et bonum

Recent Reads

I enjoyed three recent reads of a more religious nature

Yesterday, I finished Heretics by G. K. Chesterton. Actually, it's a reread - I originally read it years ago. Moreover, what I finished were the sections of the book that we did not read together at our local Chesterton Society gatherings over the past few month. Plus, I missed the March meeting, so I had to make up for those pages.

Typical Chesterton. Typically enjoyable - though I admit his style is very British and very early 20th Century, so it's not to everyone's taste. In addition to reading his amusing comments about the "heretics" of his time, I was reminded of a few works I'd thought in the past I'd like to read. With that in mind, I went to the local library and borrowed two plays he mentioned: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw. When I'm done with those, I'll go back for yet another work he mentioned that I'd always meant to read, Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. I'd read excerpts before, but never the complete book.

Last week I read Heroes of the Catholic Reformation: Saints Who Renewed the Church by Joseph Pearce. It was one of the books on my shlef, and it had a section of St. Robert Southwell. At first, I just read that chapter in preparation for a little seminar I was leading about his poetry (for our local Edmund Campion Reading Series), but then decided to read the entire book.

It was well worth the read. Pearce has a clear writing style, and he's good at synthesizing material. 

And before I read Pearce's book I read Jesuit at Large: Essays and Reviews by Paul V. Mankowski, S.J. I've always enjoyed his essays, and this collection did not disappoint.

Onward. So much more literature awaits.

Pax et bonum

Some Catechism Paragraphs

Mortal Sins


1857 For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: “Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”

1858 Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: “Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and your mother.” The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.

1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.

1860 Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man. The promptings of feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.

Eucharist

1333 At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his Passion: "He took bread. . . ." "He took the cup filled with wine. . . ." The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation.


1375 It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. The Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion.


Fornication and sexual practices

2353 Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.

2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices. 

Abortion 

2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law: You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.

2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” “by the very commission of the offense,” and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law.

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Arguments for Slavery and Abortion

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More Wake Photos - Younger Years

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