First Things RSS Feed - Gerald E. Murray

Church Teaching on Trial

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 06:00:00 -0400

The recently published North American Final Document for the Continental Stage of the 2021–2024 Synod (NAFD) confirms suspicions that the discussions at the October 2023 Synod on Synodality will almost certainly center around the alleged failure of the Church to be inclusive, welcoming, and respectful. The supposedly aggrieved include well over half of the faithful: “women, young people, immigrants, racial or linguistic minorities, LGBTQ+ persons, people who are divorced and remarried without an annulment.” Not listed here are faithful Catholics, exiled from their parishes, who prefer to attend the Traditional Latin Mass. Not all grievances are created equal.

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Rejoice in the Lord Always

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 06:00:00 -0500

The Mass for the Third Sunday of Advent strikes a note of joy amidst this penitential time of preparation for the coming of Christ at Christmas. The priest wears a rose-colored chasuble in place of the accustomed violet vestments. The entrance antiphon, taken from the fourth chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, proclaims: “ Gaudete in Domino ”—“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice. Indeed, the Lord is near.”

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Sorrow and Hope on All Souls Day

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 06:00:00 -0400

“We believe in the life eternal. We believe that the souls of all those who die in the grace of Christ—whether they must still be purified in purgatory, or whether from the moment they leave their bodies Jesus takes them to paradise as He did for the Good Thief—are the People of God in the eternity beyond death, which will be finally conquered on the day of the Resurrection when these souls will be reunited with their bodies.” ~ Credo of the People of God , Pope St. Paul VI, June 30, 1968

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Why Francis Must Speak

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 09:15:00 -0400

The crux of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's indictment of Pope Francis comes toward the end of his Memorandum : “Francis is abdicating the mandate which Christ gave to Peter to confirm the brethren. Indeed, by his action he has divided them, led them into error, and encouraged the wolves to continue to tear apart the sheep of Christ’s flock.”

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What Makes a Great Parish?

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 06:00:00 -0500

Great Catholic Parishes: How Four Essential Practices Make Them Thrive
by william e. simon, jr.
ave maria press, 202 pages, $17.95

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The Witness of Bernard Nathanson

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:01:00 -0500

The following is adapted from Fr. Gerald Murray’s homily at the funeral of Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson.

The prophet Isaiah proclaims this hope filled message in our first reading today: “Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee” (Is 35:10)

The everlasting joy of Heaven is our hope. We long for the joy and gladness promised to those whom the Lord has ransomed. Dr. Nathanson for years longed for that joy and gladness. He found it in Christ.

In his book, Dr. Nathanson wrote of his medical school professor and fellow Jewish convert to Catholicism, Karl Stern: “He possessed a secret I had been searching for all my life”the secret of the peace of Christ” After years of deep involvement in what he called “the satanic world of abortion,” Dr. Nathanson came to believe in Christ. He lived with Christ crucified and resurrected for the last fourteen years of his life on earth. He experienced great peace upon becoming a Christian.

St. Paul exhorts us today in our second reading: “Let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body.” (Col. 3:15) Dr. Nathanson heard and answered that call. He knew great peace in the Catholic Church after years of much trouble and despair. We pray today that he enter into the fullness of that peace in the land of the living.

I am not exaggerating when I say that Dr. Bernard Nathanson is a towering figure in the history of the United States because he was an unflinching witness on behalf of those millions who have been killed, or are threatened to be killed, by abortion. He was a witness who spoke out against what he himself had helped to bring about, namely the legalization of abortion in our country, along with his fellow founders of NARAL, the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws.

He broke with this evil movement, and repented of his sins. His epiphany came when he saw ultrasound images of the developing human being in the womb. He wrote: “Ultrasound opened up a new world. For the first time we could really see the human fetus, measure it, observe it, watch it, and indeed bond with it and love it. I began to do that.” He continued “Having looked at the ultrasound, I could no longer go on as before.”

Dr. Nathanson followed the truth where it led him. He wrote: “After my exposure to ultrasound, I began to rethink the prenatal phase of life . . . . When I began to study fetology, it dawned on me, finally, that the prenatal nine months are just another band in the spectrum of life . . . . To disrupt or abort a life at this point is intolerable”it is a crime. I don’t make any bones about using that word: Abortion is a crime.”

Msgr. William Smith is another great hero of the pro-life movement whose passing we still mourn. He never tired of repeating this axiom: “Social engineering is always preceded by verbal engineering.” Dr. Nathanson and Msgr. Smith were champions in the never-ending struggle here below to prevent the ideological corruption of language. That is a Godly struggle. May we take up where they have left off.

Dr. Nathanson reminds me of another great witness against evil and in favor of the truth in the twentieth century, Whittaker Chambers. I read somewhere that Betty Friedan thought the same thing, but I am sure for different reasons.

Chambers renounced his membership in the Communist party and spoke out against those who were part of a conspiracy to harm our nation through espionage for the Soviet Union. He confessed to being a Soviet spy. He was vilified. He suffered. He stood firm. He spoke the truth.

The introduction to his book Witness is a “ Foreword in the Form of a Letter to My Children .” This quotation from the foreword captures Dr. Nathanson’s courageous witness on behalf of innocent human beings menaced by abortion: “A man is not primarily a witness against something. That is only incidental to the fact that he is a witness for something. A witness, in the sense that I am using the word, is a man whose life and faith are so completely one that when the challenge comes to step out and testify for his faith, he does so, disregarding all risks, accepting all consequences.”

Dr. Bernard Nathanson was a fearless advocate of the self-evident truth that it is a grave injustice to kill people before they are born. The unjust decisions of the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton mandating legalized abortion in our country cry out for the counter-witness of those who will not abide this injustice. Heroism is called for. True heroism is never easy and is only possible through God’s grace. We acknowledge today our gratitude to a true hero who would not abide such grave injustice in our land. In doing so, we too recognize the Hand of God in the life of Dr. Nathanson.

Chambers wrote of himself in that foreword to his book: “But a man may also be an involuntary witness. I do not know any way to explain why God’s grace touches a man who seems unworthy of it. But neither do I know any other way to explain how a man like myself”tarnished by life, unprepossessing, not brave”could prevail so far against the powers of the world arrayed almost solidly against him, to destroy him and defeat his truth. In this sense, I am an involuntary witness to God’s grace and to the fortifying power of faith.”

Only God knows whether Dr. Nathanson was a voluntary or involuntary witness against abortion and for life. But it is clear that he was truly courageous. He rejected what he knew to be evil, and then spoke out. In his humility he, like Chambers, recognized that God’s grace is made ever more manifest when He chooses unexpected apostles.

Chambers tells a haunting story in his book which gives us, I think, an insight into Dr. Nathanson’s rejection of abortion. He writes:

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Into the Land of the Living

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:53:00 -0500

The second day of November is a busy one for parish priests. On that day, we celebrate three Masses for the dead. These liturgies follow directly on the previous day’s joyous celebration of the saints in glory. The living—those souls who are truly living because they have entered heaven, the Land of the Living—and the dead—those who died in the state of grace yet need purification before they may enter eternal life—are joined to us in worship and prayer. The altar is the crossroads between life, death, and eternal life. On the altar, on consecutive days in November, we offer the Holy Sacrifice in honor of the saints and in supplication for those being made fit for heaven.

The supernatural mission of the Church is to unite man to God, here and hereafter, and the priest is one of God’s key instruments in bringing about this blessed union. On All Souls’ Day, I am very conscious of this mission. The Church’s solicitude for her children does not stop at the grave. We accompany our deceased faithful across the doorway of death, and we pray to God for their quick release from the purifying fire of purgatory into the joy of salvation.

The stained-glass windows in my church are beautiful reminders of the invisible world we all hope to see firsthand. The photos in my study of deceased friends are reminders not only of past blessings received through them, but also of my duty not to forget them in my prayers and Masses. On November 2, past, present, and future come together, especially at the altar. All of our lives are in the hands of a merciful God. The joy of heaven is assured for the holy souls in purgatory, yet the experience of that joy must wait. We can hasten that moment through our appeals to God, in prayer and mortification, on behalf of those whom we no longer see.

Is the Church’s preoccupation with the souls of the dead morbid? Does the insistence on praying for the dead reflect a refusal to accept the reality of death? Quite the contrary. The dead are dead to this world, but they live to God. Our prayers reflect the communion of love that death does not destroy. We remember those whom God placed into our lives here below for a time and who are united with us still, even after they have left our sight. This fact, taught to us by our faith, compels us to act. We pray, and we rejoice at the goodness of God—he who allows us to help those we love who are beyond our earthly vision yet still are seen by God.

Black vestments are traditional on All Souls’ Day. They denote the tragic nature of death, which tears soul from body and brings that soul before God for its particular judgment. Our spirits must be serious about our duty to pray for the dead. Forgetfulness of the holy souls can be a problem for us: out of sight, out of mind. On the feast of All Souls, the Church tells us, “Remember!” In that act of remembering, we also must prepare for our own departure from this world, at a time of God’s choosing. Death is familiar to us, and we must not hide from it nor push it from our thoughts. Rather, we must turn to the one who conquered death by his own death. We must ask him to grant eternal life to all those who have gone before us, in the hope of our own entrance, one day, into the Land of the Living.

Fr. Gerald E. Murray is pastor of St. Vincent De Paul Parish in New York.

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