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      The end of the winter quarter and the beginning of the spring quarter  is the time when the young (or not so young) seminarian’s thoughts  turn to summative evaluations.  They ask a couple of seminarians to write an evaluation of them. They write a self-evaluation. All the faculty has an opportunity to offer input on the seminarians. Finally they meet individually with the formation team in which all the various informaion is brought together and discussed with them. The majority of the feedback is usually positive, and many of the criticisms that come out are not new, but a restatements of what the semiarian has been working on for the past year. It is not the kind of “cloak and dagger” approach that was used in my day.

     Last week and tomorrow, the fourth year seminarians have their summative meetings with the formation team to determine whether they will be ordained to the diaconate in April. Next week, the fifth year seminarians/deacons have their meetings to determine whether they will be ordained  the priesthood. Please keep the guys in your prayers, because anytime someone is looking at your life, it is going to be stressful. Pray that the formation team will help them in their discernment of their vocation.

      On this feast of one of the early virgin Martyrs of the Church, we recall one whose name in Greek means “Goodness.” Her goodness is seen in her purity of heart and mind, and the offering that purity as a sacrifice for her persecutors. I wish we could get young girls to see the value of these virgin martyrs in helping them deal with all the traps of this culture. Goodness needs to be seen not in terms of gaining pleasure for ourselves, but rather living in the world in the light of the true of God’s Triune love and the constant flow of grace that pours from the Holy Spirit. Maybe, instead of looking to Hollywood, they can, as we approach the season of Lent, to the Holy Wood of the cross, through which Jesus Christ brings us more than a fulfilment of temporal pleasures. He brings us everlasting joy and blessedness which keeps us hopeful.

     I always find Ash Wednesday to be a fascinating day. Some people tend to act very somber and do exactly what the Gospel tells us not to do LOOK SAD. In preparing my Lenten talks, the Focus of Lent is on penance not in terms of self-denial, but rather a hopeful new beginning that we can find a new way of showing our Love for God and neighbor. We can regain our spiritual youth and find new energy and grace in the Christian life that we are seeking to live. We shall see what tomorrow holds, for the beginning of Lent is actually a serious step on our part to prepare to unite with the Risen Lord again on Easter Sunday.  

Please pray for all priests and seminarians and support SACRED HEART RADIO.

     Today I had the opportunity to be at WKRC studios in MT Aubirn to tape  channel 12 NEWSMAKERS, a current events television show on Sunday mornings at 11:00am. The topic was The Bodies: An Exhibition. The show is moderated by Dan Hurley, who is a reporter for channel 12 as well as Vice-President of the Cincinnati Historical societ at Union Terminal. The two other guests were a Rabbi from Wise Temple (who is on the Union Terminal exhibit ethics board) and a gentleman who works for a pro-life embryology group. I was the only person there who was against the nature of the exhibit. (For the record, Channel 12 and the Cincinnati Enquirer are both sponsors of the exhibit).

     The big concern of the day was why the Archbishop did not allow diocesan schools to attend the exhibit. They showed a news clip of an interview with Fr. Michael Seger, the Moral Theologian here at the Seminary. My response was simple. As the chief teacher, it is the duty of the bishop to inform the faithful on the nature of the exhibit and he believed it to be inappropriate, as I do.  One person commented that he thought the displays of the “specimens” were tasteful and inspiring and it helped people to be more in touch with their humanity. The pro-life gentleman also praised the display of the “fetuses” as a beautiful way of seeing fetal development. It seems to me upon reflection that they saw this as a kind of human “art exhibit.” Everyting was artful and tasteful and EDUCATIONAL. I reminded the group that these were human persons who had possessed souls and that this demeaned human dignity. It got nowhere. I should have added that it is not good to treat human corpses as artistic objects, and that the ends do not justify the means- but I can’t think of everything so fast.

     Then Mr. Hurley mentioned that the diocese of Pittsburgh is actually encouraging its students to attend the shows in Pittsburgh, and that pamphlets on the show were being inserted into parish bulletins. I pointed out that the Pittsburgh statement (which luckily I had looked at in advance-this might have been Mr. Hurley’s attempt to ask me a “hard question”) had several flaws in it. Namely it only addressed the question of the source of the bodies, and not the nature of the process that turned human corpses into rubberized plastic models. (Probably with a 5000 year life span, though I am not sure). Again, when asked why two dioceses could have such different views, I mentioned that they (Pittsburgh) were missing the real issue of the nature of the body. No one commented further.

     Finally at the end, I was able to present the position of the Church on the human body in nature to the Incarnation (I used small words) so that the Catholic position could be clearer, but by this time I was simply “spitting in the ocean.” As I was the only one who had not personally seen the exhibit, I was aksed if I was going to go see it. I said that I had seen parts of it on the internet, and concluded by saying I might. I realize that this was also a stupid thing to say. I should have said not only no, but HELL NO.

     This is the gist of the show. The biggest problem was that there was only 18 MINUTES to have this discussion, which is no time at all to really get into it with three people and a moderator. As I said, the deck was stacked and with only four responses, I did very little to help the cause of helping people to see that this exhibit is not a good thing. For me, the biggest problem is that the people seemed blind to the reality and they think they are providing a real service to the community by bringing these cut up, rubberized dead human persons and charging 23.00 a person to see it.  It only proves to me that right is now wrong, and wrong is now right

     Then, when I was watching the 5:00pm and 5:30 news on Channel 12, the anchors spoke of a type of “showdown this Sunday on 12 newsmakers.” But it is a load of you know what. News is more hype than fact anymore. If you want to see it, I believe it will be on this Sunday at 11:00am on channel 12. I hope if there is a next time for me, I will do better.

Please pray for all priests and seminarians and support SACRED HEART RADIO.