I’ve had a question concerning Natural Family Planning rattling around in my head for awhile, and a conversation I had today with a non-Catholic persuaded me to finally post it. It’s always a little dangerous getting into these controversial waters, but this is an angle of the topic that we’ve never discussed before, and indeed, I haven’t found much discussion of it anywhere. So I thought I might as well open a thread.

To begin, I should define the ‘Stork Method’ for those readers who haven’t been following all our blog discussions since the winter of ‘05. It is a term coined here at the Cornell Society for a Good Time for a method of family planning that involves, basically, learning nothing about fertility, engaging in marital relations as circumstance and personal whim dictate, and accepting whatever children happen to be conceived thereby. It is recommended by certain members of our Society as the most virtuous means of building a family. Not knowing exactly their mind on the subject I cannot promise to accurately summarize their reasons for endorsing the Stork Method; certainly one interest is to shun utterly any possibility of using NFP as a means of pregnancy avoidance without sufficiently grave reasons. I think, though, that the idea may go deeper than this, and entail a rejection of the idea of ‘family planning’ generally. Proponents of this plan like the idea that children come in God’s time and not ours. They are affronted by the idea that they themselves should assume control over such a sacred event as conception (which does, after all, bring a new soul into existence.) Thus, the Stork Method endeavors to leave the matter in God’s hands.

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Over the past few days I have been leisurely perusing the writings of Pope Leo XIII. I do this partly out of general interest; I seem to hear his name thrown around quite often by liberal Catholics wishing to enlist his support for various liberal causes, and I would like to be able to respond intelligently to those claims. Also, I intend to write a post, perhaps later this week, responding to Vicki’s claim (which I still think erroneous) that Ron Paul is the rightful intellectual successor of Pope Leo. I always hesitate to charge into thorny questions of economics and political theory, mainly because they are so devilishly complicated, and my education (which has primarily been philosophical) hasn’t equipped me to discuss such things with much sophistication. Nonetheless, discuss them I shall, in a forthcoming post which shall also reopen the question of Dr. Paul and his fitness for our nation’s highest political office. For today, however, I wish to address an easier topic: dueling.

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We recently received details about the Roman Forum’s 2008 annual summer symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy. It will take place June 26th to July 7th. I have the distinct pleasure of saying that I will be able to attend this year for the first time.

These Ruins are Inhabited
Catholic Emergence From the Rubble of Two
“Iron Ages” (The Tenth and Twentieth Centuries)

The great Catholic civilization of the High Middle Ages arose from initiatives developed in the Tenth Century. This was popularly known as an “Age of Iron” and filled with tales of ecclesiastical collapse and social confusion. Can a new Catholic civilization arise from the ideological and social rubble left by the Twentieth Century’s Iron Age? What signs of hope and warning bells must we Twenty-First Century Catholics heed in attempting to “restore all things in Christ”? What does the example of the Tenth Century teach us in our efforts to rebuild Christendom? These are the questions to be addressed by our expanded, European-American faculty in the 2008 Summer Symposium, in a program dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI and offered in gratitude for his motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum. Why not join us for ten days of living, learning and praying in a microcosm of traditional Christendom.

Among others, there will be talks given by the following faculty, clergy, and musicians:
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We were sent this announcement by one of our correspondents, who happens to have volunteered his very able services for my and C.S.’s nuptial Mass, and who will likely be serving at the Mass in question:

On February 2, there will be a traditional Solemn Mass at Our Lady of Good Counsel in New York City. The church is located at 230 East 90th Street, between 2nd & 3rd Ave.

The traditional blessing of candles will start at 1pm. There will then be a procession inside then church before the beginning of the Solemn Mass.

Fr. Richard Trezza will be the Celebrant, Fr. Matthew Talarico (ICK) will be the Deacon and Fr. James Miara will be the Subdeacon.

All are welcome to attend! And may I say that Candlemas, or the Feast of the Purification, is the end of the Christmas season, and I can think of no better way to close out this holy Season of our Lord’s Birth than by attending such a celebration.

The Doctor and I were having a conversation the other day about university buildings and the donors who pay for them. As university people ourselves, we’re grateful to those wealthy alums who help ensure that we have adequate facilities for our work. There is, however, one unfortunate thing about the use of donor money for building. The building is generally named for the person who underwrote the building of it, or in some cases for somebody else designated by the donors. Hence, our university buildings tend to bear the random names of wealthy alums, or perhaps friends or relations of theirs. I can’t say it’s unreasonable that a person who gives 20 million dollars to put up a building should get to pick the name. But for good (and wealthy) Catholics, wouldn’t it be nicer to name buildings for saints, or at least illustrious Catholics whose lives we should admire?

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Today is a Federal holiday in the United States — the only one in the American calendar designated in honor of a single individual. That individual, of course, is Martin Luther King, Jr., the most famous black leader to come out of the Civil Rights movement, and the closest thing Americans have to a national hero. Cornell is certainly doing its part to honor King’s memory. Earlier today I received this email from our esteemed president, David J. Skorton:

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Today is the birthday of a virgin; let us imitate her purity. It is the birthday of a martyr; let us offer ourselves in sacrifice. It is the birthday of Saint Agnes, who is said to have suffered martyrdom at the age of twelve.

The cruelty that did not spare her youth shows all the more clearly the power of faith in finding one so young to bear it witness. There was little or no room in that small body for a wound. Though she could scarcely receive the blow, she could rise superior to it. Girls of her age cannot bear even their parents’ frowns and, pricked by a needle, weep as for a serious wound. Yet she shows no fear of the blood-stained hands of her executioners. She stands undaunted by heavy, clanking chains. She offers her whole body to be put to the sword by fierce soldiers. She is too young to know of death, yet is ready to face it. Dragged against her will to the altars, she stretches out her hands to the Lord in the midst of the flames, making the triumphant sign of Christ the victor on the altars of sacrilege. She puts her neck and hands in iron chains, but no chain can hold fast her tiny limbs.
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Many of you will have already read (and if not you can follow the link the Ephemeris at the left) that reports have gone out that the Holy Father will soon be changing the prayer for the conversion of Jews in the Good Friday liturgy. The prayer will not be omitted, and it will still be for the conversion of Jews. But it will probably leave out the reference to “blindness” (and, for any who were wondering, I’m pretty sure it won’t re-insert the adjective “perfidious.”)

Many traditional Catholics are upset about this news, seeing it as a capitulation to the evil forces of liberalism etc etc. They’re looking at it all backwards. In fact, this should be seen as an exciting development. The Holy Father is affirming in the most basic and practical way that the Traditional Latin Mass is a living liturgy. It can gradually change and grow as time and circumstance demands. This is how liturgy has always been. The fact that the Holy Father is taking pains to rewrite one of the prayers is a sign to everyone that this Mass cannot be regarded as a fossil. It is a part of the Church today, living and nourishing her faithful.

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For those of you out there who are parents, as I now am, I thought that this was something good to pass along:

THE PARENTAL BLESSING: In an address before the sixteenth annual convention of the National Catholic Conference on Family Life in 1949, the Rt. Rev. Archabbot Ignatius Esser, O.S.B., recalled an incident that was very striking. He said that several years previously there was a headline in our Catholic papers which read, “Bishop Kneels for Mother’s Blessing.” He continued, “It was the Most Reverend F. T. Roch, D.D., Bishop of Tuticurin, India. He met his mother at the railroad station and there, in the presence of a multitude of people, he `knelt before his mother to receive her blessing, and the grand old lady placed her wrinkled hands on the head of her illustrious son and blessed him’.”

Many of our fathers and mothers do not know that they have this privilege. In our times, especially in this country, the custom has fallen into disuse. This is one custom which by all means should be fostered. There should be no difficulty in reintroducing it. Young parents will find that, if the practice is started early in their family life, there will be no trouble in keeping it up. And the parents of older families will surely not refuse to bless their children, even if grown-up, if they ask the blessing of them.

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I don’t really want this blog to get too wildly political, especially this early in election season (but then, now is rather a critical time too) but I was about to frame an extensive answer to comments posted by Johnboy on an earlier thread, and I realized that, if we were going to argue about politics, I might as well make it a head post where everybody could see it. It doesn’t make sense to hide a controversial argument on a thread that probably nobody is reading anymore.

The positions stand thus. In my post on Mitt Romney last month, I mentioned in passing that, among the Republican candidates, I am somewhat partial to John McCain, (though certainly not without some reservations.) I would also be tolerably happy with Romney as the GOP candidate. McCain seems more honest and adult to me, but Romney has, among other things, a slightly more attractive position on stem cell research. In any case, I think I would be tolerably satisfied with either one. I would also probably vote for Fred Thompson in a general election, though it doesn’t look as though I’ll get the chance. I will not, under any circumstances, vote for Rudy Giuliani or Ron Paul. I haven’t decided whether or not I would cast a ballot for Mike Huckabee, but I will say right now that I would be seriously displeased if he were chosen as the GOP candidate for the 2008 presidential election.

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