Can you trust Thomas Merton?

The model of modern gyrovague monasticism...
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I appreciate some of Merton's earlier writings, although I find his later writings only interesting - to some extent.  I've never been attracted to his work for spiritual reading however.  No doubt he has influenced many people and I think he is very much a hero and model for the peace and justice activists who have controlled much of the Catholic Church in the U.S. since the Council.  Likewise his greatest influence may have been that his writings and monastic explorations opened the doors of many a cloister to the New Age, Orientalism, and the ever popular Centering Prayer movement.  Others may disagree.
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I found a rather good rundown on Merton's writings in the post, Can I Trust Thomas Merton, at Catholic Spiritual Direction blog.  I like what the author has to say in response to the question:
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My advice? Well, it’s not like the Church is hurting for solid and perfectly trustworthy writings on the spiritual life. I personally don’t know why anyone would want to carefully sift through this kind of literature when it is clear that Merton had serious issues. It seems a bit like sifting through the refuse at the back of a good restaurant. You are likely to find much that is of nutritional value, but why not just go take your seat at the table for the best and purest meals available? I would encourage you to stick with the spiritual doctors of the Church. - Can I trust Thomas Merton?

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I couldn't agree more - one cannot have confidence that the Holy Spirit was guiding him in his later works.  Personally, I would never go to his writings for spiritual reading or direction.  

Sexual Fluidity: Blurring the lines of sexual orientation.

Inclusive and equal.
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Kinsey pretty much invented the popular concept that sexuality can be fluid over time as it involves sexual attraction and experience.  (It can be fluid as regards orientation, behavior, identity and desire.)  The concept is big with women's pop-culture, psycho/sexual therapy networks.  The concept is also useful in putting forth an explanation as to why a straight man or woman can leave spouse and kids for a same-sex partner.  In recent years it is claimed it seems to be a variant in the sexual behavior amongst men in black urban culture - otherwise straight black men consenting to homosexual encounters from time to time, and so on.  And yes - the phenomenon is referred to as bisexuality, albeit that identity seems to be in process of being replaced by the concept of sexual fluidity.  In other words - it is hip to believe sexual orientation is no longer fixed - a person can go either way, any time, any how.  It is part of a global movement to exclude traditional concepts of gender identity.  I'm oversimplifying the concept of course - but it makes my point.
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Amongst church-people the concept is subtly being adopted, if not taught - more quietly and secretly these days due to the scandals and "official" Church teaching.  It seems to me some bishops, seminaries, and the ordained appear to have harboured similar understanding long ago.  Not surprisingly I suppose, since the concept developed out of the very corrupt Kinsey research.  American Catholic leaders certainly bought into the psychological studies of the day, frequently even as it 'appeared' to contradict Catholic moral teaching.  At least that is the impression I have formed over the decades.    
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A current example.
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An Irish Capuchin priest has recently been ordered to stop writing/publishing his theory that homosexuality is simply a natural variant of the human condition.  On the surface it sounds as if the priest is simply advocating for homosexuality as a normal sexual orientation, rejecting the notion it is intrinsically disordered as the catechism makes clear.  But a closer read seems to indicate the priest believes the notion of sexual fluidity is the more natural dynamic - and that idea paves the way for rejecting Catholic moral teaching which says homosexual attraction is intrinsically disordered.  The thinking these days is that when dealing with issues of sexual orientation, spiritual counselors, therapists and teachers must keep up with current thought, rejecting out-dated ideas, and accepting a new normal when it comes to sexuality.  From IrishTimes.com:
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“... nature is a loose peg on which to hang a theology of human relationships”.
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AN IRISH Catholic priest has been banned by the Vatican from publishing any more of his writings after he suggested homosexuality is “simply a facet of the human condition”.

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Commenting on teachings that “homosexuality is unnatural”, Fr O’Sullivan wrote that “nature is a loose peg on which to hang a theology of human relationships”. The Concise Oxford Dictionary listed nine meanings for “nature” and 14 for “natural”, he said.
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Throughout history “same-sex attraction and acts have been a consistent feature of human life . . . Same-sex attraction is simply a facet of the human condition,” he said. He recalled church teaching says it is not wrong to be gay, ‘‘but it is wrong to act gay”.
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He suggested: “Imagine someone saying... ‘There’s nothing in itself wrong with being Irish... But that doesn’t mean you may act on it. So, no more Guinness, going to Croke Park, singing rebel songs into the early hours of the morning, waving Tricolours, no more craic.” - Source
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So anyway.  I suspect this thinking is most likely what is going down in some Catholic schools these days, as well as in progressive parishes, and most likely amongst some bishops meetings and priest support groups - why else would groups like Rainbow Sash endorse certain candidates for leadership positions in Church and State, while claiming this is what the people in the pews are asking for? 
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H/T PewsittersNews

African Bishops Dazzled By Obama?

Don't give the man any more ideas...
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Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana said Wednesday that there was "a divine plan behind" Obama's election.
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"It's like the biblical story repeating itself," he told reporters, citing the Old Testament figure Joseph, who after being sold into slavery in Egypt ends up becoming a top official.
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"We believe God has his own plans. God directs history," he said of the U.S. election. "We pray that it (Obama's presidency) brings blessings for Africa and the whole world."
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Earlier this week, the Ghanian prelate leading the three-week meeting on the Church in Africa, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, cited Obama's election in saying he didn't see any reason why there couldn't now be a black pope. - Source
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You don't say...
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Archbishop Gregory mentioned something about the possibility of there being a black Pope after Obama won the election as well.
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You know of course, before John Paul II a non-Italian was hardly expected to be elected to the papacy - although non-Italians had been Popes in the past - including Africans.  I may be wrong, but since when does race or nationality factor into the election of a Pontiff?
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No doubt God permitted the election of Obama as President - but we are living in the New Coveneant, not the Old - so the analogy with Joseph doesn't really work for me - it sounds a little 'evangelical' if you ask me.  Especially since Joseph, as a type,  prefigured Christ.  Now if they compared him to Antiochus Epiphanes, I could maybe understand that one.    
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So anyway, if there are blessings to be had, I would be willing to bet that Muslims would get the nod from Obama before African Catholics.

Dante's Inferno - The Musical.

Wouldn't that be a fun Broadway show?

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Anyway. I've been reading Dante lately, as well as a few commentaries on the medieval masterpiece. Did you know the sin of sodomy is considered a form of violence? Defenders of the vice like to say only in cases of rape and humiliation of conquered enemies, but it is more than that. Sodomy is considered a violent act against nature... kind of like fisticuffs, if you know what I mean. Of course the "practice" of such intercourse is so obviously against nature, one shouldn't have to explain, given the fact physical injuries and health issues can follow such behavior. Unrelated to actual sodomy, one may note the violence done against one's own body as a result of sexual reassignment surgery. Severing body parts from one's person, though performed in a sanitized, clinical setting, certainly seems like a violent act to me. Of course, so is abortion.

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Considering all of this, I came across an interesting article titled, "Why does Dante consider sodomy worse than homicide and suicide?"

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"In the Inferno, the penalty holds a mirror to the sin itself, to show how it manifested itself in life."

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"Dante finds the sodomites at the bottom of the seventh circle (of hell), a circle that contains three rings. Again, his geography is very revealing. In the top ring of the seventh circle are those who killed for gain, whether in empire-building or in robbing travelers on the highway. Appropriately enough, mass murderers such as Alexander are up to their eyebrows in boiling blood, while common robbers are only ankle deep. Below them in the second ring are those who committed suicide because they lost money, reputation, or status. They are below the homicides, because they willfully violated the law of self-preservation, an even more basic law of Nature than love of neighbor. Since they set a lower value on their life than on worldly additions to it, they are now deprived of their human form and reduced to thorny trees oppressed by nightmarish Harpies.

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But Dante places sodomy in the bottom-most ring of the seventh circle, below homicide and suicide, suggesting that this sin is an even worse form of violence. The implication here is that sodomy involves an even more thoroughgoing hostility to Nature than defying the laws of self-preservation or love of neighbor; that it is a culmination of violence in being destructive to neighbor, violating self-love, and at the same time undermining family and community. Note that the suicides in the first ring damned themselves alone, while the sodomites damned themselves with others. Therefore, sodomites must run in a band forever on the burning plain. The burning sands on which they run represent their sterility. With this detail Dante shows that the intimacies of sodomy lead to a lack of posterity and put an end to one's family line.

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Thus, Dante reveals that sodomy has wide social ramifications that go beyond homicide and suicide. The sodomites are on the same burning sands as the blasphemers — those who are violent against God — because they were equally destructive of the community. Just as the blasphemers assaulted the faith of the people, so the sodomites assaulted family life, and both of these are foundations of the community, one spiritual and one natural. - Source

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The myth of "coming out".

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It seems to me that the concept of self-hate/self-loathing, which the gay-pride movement asserts is overcome through acceptance of one's 'gayness' and 'coming out' is for the most part simply magical thinking - it is delusion on a grand scale. Active gay people are never able to free themselves from the cycle of self-hate they accuse their so-called homophobic adversaries of. In many cases it seems to me theirs is a wilful turning away from Divine Providence, the Divine plan. The Pride movement by definition resists God to His face as it were, "I will not serve, I will not obey." The Pride movement can provide a superficial semblance of virtuous solidarity and freedom, but it does not offer an antidote to the deeper, more profound alienation of soul - it only distracts from such self-knowledge. I find it interesting that the author of the article cited above included the following critique:

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"Now, the punishment for sin in the Inferno represents exactly what the sinner obstinately chose during life. So it is important to note that Dante sees the sodomites running in a company, not paired like the lustful heterosexuals of the second circle. He implies that sodomy involves not couples, but a large pool of sexual partners - (or in the case of Pride, non-sexual partners). And when Dante asks Brunetto about the most famous men in his company, it is the sodomite himself who speaks of his fellows with contempt as a "wretched mob" made "filthy in the world," giving us a glimpse of the self-loathing and the contempt of sexual partners that accompanies this sin." - Anne Barbeau Gardiner

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Of course, these are just things to think about. Although I happen to believe that only real peace can be found in renouncing this sin and being reconciled with God and the Church through the Sacrament of Penance and the Holy Eucharist. Authentic self-love, which is understood in the commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself, is first and foremost concerned with the salvation of one's soul, and the souls of others.