Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

New Ecumenical Document

Zenit is reporting that the Pontificial Commission for Promoting Christian Unity is expecting to have a new document out soon with the Lutheran World Federation.

This time the topic is apostolicity and apostolic succession, and they’re hoping to publish it next year.

What kind of document it is and whether 2006 is just meant to inaugurate a discussion of it or be its final proclamation, I dunno. The story isn’t specific enough. They might follow the path they did for the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which involved having an initial release of it for comment, followed by a revision, followed by the Lutherans voting on it, followed by the Vatican getting cold feet at the last moment, followed by a Catholic response document, followed by behind the scenes negotiations, followed by a much-embarrassed both parties finally promulgating it.

Only I hope not.

Speaking of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, Cardinal Kasper indicates that the document may not remain an exclusively Catholic-Lutheran work.

According to him the Methodists are planning on endorsing it next year, too.

GET THE STORY.

An Excommunicated Cardinal?

After the press reports of the cardinal who (may have) broken his oath of secrecy regarding the most recent conclave, a lot of folks have been wondering about what canonical penalty might apply to the cardinal.

The article I linked reports a reporter saying that he can’t name the cardinal because the penalty for breaking the oath is excommunication.

Since many folks know that some excommunications take effect immediately and some have to be imposed, I was a little surprised that nobody has yet e-mailed to ask whether this might be an automatic or an imposed excommuication–or whether excommunication is really in play or not.

I was writing in a hurry and so didn’t have time to go into the canonical question, figuring I’d do a follow-up post.

Fortunately, I don’t have to.

ED PETERS HAS.

FYI

A momentary lunchblog.

For those who might be wondering why the comments on the Spiritual Help After Miscarriages post are now hidden, the reason is that there was an egregious Rule 20 violation unfolding in the combox and the quickest way to solve the problem was to hide the comments.

My thanks to those who argued against the Rule 20 violation. My apologies to those whose comments could have stood if not for the Rule 20 violation.

For the individual committing the Rule 20 violation, you may not be familiar with the rules I operate this blog under. Rule 20 exists for a specific reason and that reason is definitely in play when someone writes in with an event which is, by his own admission, one that has been emotionally devastating to him.

If you want to disagree with me, fine, but do it via e-mail. Don’t go <expletive>ing on the pastoral comfort I’m trying to provide to a devastated individual.

He’s No Match For Droidekas!

Kimjongil_2Good news, everybody!

Battle robots may be joining the peace-keeping mission at the North Korea/South Korea DMZ (a.k.a., "the Neutral Zone").

EXCERPTS:

Armed, six-legged robots may one day work alongside man’s best friend on the southern side of the Korean DMZ.


South Korea will spend 33.4 billion won over the next five years to develop the robots for the heavily fortified demilitarised zone that divides the peninsula, the Communications Ministry said in a statement Friday.


South Korea envisages the robots performing roles on the battlefield now done by dogs, such as sniffing for explosives and catching intruders, the ministry said.


The robots will stand knee-high to the average adult, mounted on wheels for road missions or on as many as eight legs to get them over uneven terrain, it said. Equipped with firearms, they will be able to carry out combat missions via remote control.

GET THE STORY.

RomulanNorth Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il probably won’t be pleased!

No floral baskets for the robots!

Spiritual Help After Miscarriages

A reader writes:

My unborn child was never born. We tried our best, and went to the best doctors available to us, but this is something that’s natural and happens, unfortunately. My child could never be baptized.

This episode has been truly devastating to us.

As a parent, what should I do? I know I can pray for my child’s soul. But I wanted to have the tradition masses celebrated, like 7 day, 1 month, 1 year, and yet I have no name of baptism to ask the mass to celebrate for. In whose name should I ask the mass to be celebrated? I don’t even know the gender. I don’t know of any way the church deals with this subject. People deal as if children lost during pregnancy never existed, and yet we maintain they have souls. This seems like a paradox to me. I don’t want the soul of my child to be left without a funeral, and without a mass. This seems cruel. I want to do something, and I don’t know what. I prayed in the mass and light some candles, but somehow this doesn’t seem enough.

I was wondering if I could choose a gender-neutral name and pray and hope for a special baptism of sorts, one done by the will and prayer of the parents. Would that be right? Could I ask a mass to be celebrated in this name?

First, let me say that my heart goes out to you two. I will be praying for both of you and the child, and I encourage my readers to do so as well–as well as all those in situations like yours. Miscarriages are very tragic events, and we need to keep those who experience them in prayer.

In regard to what you can do for your departed child, you are already thinking along constructive lines. You can ask God to bring your child’s soul to be with him, either through your own desire for the child’s baptism or through whatever other means God might choose.

The Church does not have a special baptism or baptism-like ceremony that is performed in situations like this, but it does have a ceremony for blessing the parents of a child after a miscarriage. In America this is printed in a book known as The Book of Blessings. I’m not sure about equivalents in other countries, but

HERE IS A LINK TO THE TEXT OF THE BLESSING.

As far as a funeral goes, the Order of Christian Funerals (that’s the Church’s official set of rites for conducting funerals) includes a Rite of Final Commentaion of an Infant that can be used for children who are stillborn or who die shortly after birth. It may be possible to use this rite to have a funeral for your child, though consult with your local parish for help in determining whether this is the case.

As far as having Masses said and doing other devotions on behalf of the child, there are a number of options. You could give the child a gender-neutral name, as you mention. You could also have Masses said for "Baby ___________________" where the blank is filled in with the child’s last name. Or you could have the Mass said "For the Child of ______________ and _______________," giving the names of the parents. Those would be a few possibilities, anyway.

I hope these suggestions help, and my prayers are with you at this difficult time.

20

Conditional Baptism Needed?

A reader writes:

I am currently serving in Iraq, and do not have anyone I feel confident enough about to ask my question. 

I was baptised in 2004 by a Methodist minister.  I grew up, however, in a church which believed strongly that the Holy Spirit WAS NOT a person.  I shared this opinion as I grew up.  Thankfully I was never baptised in this heterodox sect. 

In 2004, when I requested baptism from the Methodist minister, I do not know if I then believed the Holy Spirit was a person or not.  I am certain that I did not believe strongly that He is not a person by that time.   Around the time of my baptism I accepted the truth that the Holy Spirit is a person–but it may have been a week or two after my baptism.  I was baptised by immersion, with the formula "I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

My question:  My baptism had the proper form, and the proper matter.  Is it possible that the intention was not proper, if at the time I did not believe in the personhood of the Holy Spirit? 

When I was confirmed in March this issue never remotely occured to me.  Needless to say the priest never asked me.
I believe my question is very silly, but for whatever reason these doubts have assailed me from out of nowhere.  The catechism says that an imperfect faith is what is required for baptism, so I’m sure I’m fine. 

PLEASE, if you have the time, answer my question, so I know if I need a conditional baptism.

I have a lot of sympathy for the situation you find yourself in. I was in it myself! When I was first learning about the Christian faith, I was a non-Trinitarian (not because of any organization teaching me to deny the Trinity, just because I was still too green and independent-minded). I came to accept the doctrine, but in later years I was not sure if I had done so before or after my baptism, and it caused me no end of worry. I’m pretty sure that I was a Trinitarian at the time of my baptism, but just to make sure, I insisted on a conditional baptism at the time I was received into the Catholic Church.

Your own baptism is also likely valid. As you note, the Catechism states:

CCC 1253 Baptism is the sacrament of faith. But faith needs the community of believers. It is only within the faith of the Church that each of the faithful can believe. the faith required for Baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning that is called to develop. the catechumen or the godparent is asked: "What do you ask of God’s Church?" the response is: "Faith!"

You very likely either believed in the Trinity or had the openness to Christian faith needed for sacramental validity, but to clear away any possibility otherwise, and for your own peace of mind, I would seek a conditional baptism.

I would go to the nearest Catholic chaplain, explain the situation, and ask for a conditional baptism, explaining that one is necessary for your peace of mind. If the chaplain refuses to perform one then, since you are in a situation in which your life may be in jeopardy, I would have one your military buddies (preferably a Catholic so as not to cause confusion for non-Catholics) perform one for you. (You cannot baptize yourself; it has to be done by someone else.)

Have him use the words "If you are not baptized, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Ideally, you would want to have a conditional confirmation as well, but this may not be possible. Fortunately, confirmation is not necessary to salvation in the way that baptism is.

You will not need to repeat your confessions. If the first baptism was valid then all subsequent confessions will be valid as well. If your first baptism was not valid then the new one will be and will wipe out any sins committed prior to it, making it unnecessary to repeat prior confessions.

I’d like to add a note for those who might otherwise worry about whether they might be in the same situation: This situation doesn’t arise because you didn’t understand the Trinity or had a shaky acceptance of it at the time of your baptism. It arises only because you had a history of prior, conscious rejection of the Trinity and are not sure if you were rejecting it at the time of your baptism. Not understanding the Trinity or having a shaky acceptance of it does not invalidate baptism.

Outright rejection of it may, however, and according to the Holy See this is why Mormon baptisms are invalid even though they use the Trinitarian formula. They supply the words of the Trinitarian formula with a fundamentally different meaning.

Whether your former religion’s understanding of the Trinity was so defective as to invalidate baptism is something I can’t answer, because the Holy See has not spelled out the subject in enough detail.

I therefore recommend that you pursue conditional baptism even though the odds are that your Methodist baptism was probably valid.

I hope this helps, and God bless you for your service to our country. I encourage all the blog readers to keep you and all of our men and women overseas in prayer.

20

Attic Vs. Koine

A reader writes:

A local language academy is offering an Ancient Greek class in another week and I signed up for it, excited at the idea of being able to read the NT and Septuagint in their original language. But then I got the textbook that will be used and it’s called "Introduction to Attic Greek". I know that there are different dialects in different languages. If I learn Attic Greek rather than Koine, will it essentially be the same thing, or am I going to have troubles?

As noted, the class starts in another week, so I’m hoping you can get back to me soon. Thank you so much for your help.

I haven’t studied Attic Greek in any depth (at least not yet), so others on the blog may be able to be of more help to you than I.

I can tell you that Koine is an outgrowth of Attic, so the two have much in common. Also, Koine is a generally simplified form, so if you can hack it in Attic, that gives you a big leg up on Koine.

From what exposure I’ve had to Attic texts (e.g., Plato’s dialogues), I found that my knowledge of Koine was a big help, and I’m sure that the reverse would be true as well.

The differences between Attic and Koine are much smaller than the differences between either of them and Modern Greek, for example.

Learning Attic would give you a big leg up on reading the New Testament and the Septuagint (which are not identical in language, themselves), though not as much as if you took a course specifically in Koine.

On the other hand, if this is the best Greek instruction available in your area, you might be better advised to take it while your motivation is up rather than wait for an ideal course that you may never find or get around to.

Learning something that’s not quite what you want beats not learning what you want at all.

For what it’s worth, I know that some students of Attic do readings in Koine. A number of years ago I was invited to give a couple of lectures on Paul and Colossians to a (secular) college class in Attic that had been translating Colossians as one of their exercises. They were a couple of years into the program and the professor (who was Jewish) thought they would benefit from trying their hand at a short Koine text. From what I could tell, they didn’t seem to have trouble with it.

Perhaps those who have had a chance to study both dialects can offer comment.

Vote Tallies For Last Conclave?

If press reports are accurate, one of the cardinals who attended last April’s conclave has broken his oath regarding the secrecy of the conclave.

According to him:

In the first round of voting, Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, received 47 votes and Bergoglio, the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, received 10. Italian cardinals Carlo Maria Martini and Camillo Ruini had nine and six votes, respectively.

Ratzinger also led the second ballot with 65 votes, while Bergoglio received 35. In the third round of voting, Ratzinger got 72 votes and Bergoglio 40.

Ratzinger needed 77 votes in the final round to win the necessary two-thirds majority of the 115 voting cardinals. He got 84, Bergoglio got 26, and three other cardinals also registered one vote apiece in the last round: Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, Italian Cardinal Giacomo Biffi and American Cardinal Bernard Law, according to the diary.

The Vatican has not confirmed or denied these numbers, but I did see one comment from a Vaticanista expressing dismay at the secret being broken, which could be taken as indirect confirmation (or not).

This still has to go into the rumor category until and unless more info emerges, but it’s an interesting rumor, particularly because those candidates who do well in voting in one conclave often do well in the voting in the next conclave if they are still young enough.

In the meantime,

GET THE STORY.

Sinful Activity In Lucid Dreams?

A reader writes:

Jimmy, I can’t seem to find an answer to this.  I know
dreams are not sinful because you don’t have control
over them.  What if you do have control over your
dreams in lucid dreams?  If you think or do bad things
in lucid dreams knowing that "it is just a dream and
anything goes", is that sinful?  There are times where
I have thought things in my dreams I shouldn’t and
told myself "I’m dreaming right now so there is no
sin".  Of course I would never think these things
while awake, yet, I still am probably in control
enough to change what I’m thinking about so I suppose
it may be possible to sin if there is some control.
Please let me know, thanks.

If you check standard moral theologies (e.g., Henry Davis’s excellent four-volume Moral And Pastoral Theology–long out of print but available by used book services), they will point out that things that you do in dreams aren’t sinful, though it can be sinful to do things while awake in an attempt to cause dreams with sinful content.

These don’t really address the question of lucid dreaming directly, though, since they are talking about ordinary dreams.

For those not aware of the distinction, lucid dreams are those in which you are aware that you are dreaming. Sometimes people who are having a lucid dream are also able to take control of the dream and cause things to happen the way they want them to. It’s even possible to train yourself (while awake) to have lucid dreams while you sleep, though not in a reliable fashion. (I.e., it’s possible to train yourself to have lucid dreams more often, but you can’t guarantee that you’ll have one on any given night.)

Though the standard moral theologies don’t address the question of lucid dreams specifically, the basic answer holds: You are not sinning (certainly not more than venially) no matter what you do in a lucid dream.

The reason is that you still lack the use of reason and are thus incapable of committing the fully human act needed for mortal sin. You usually lack sufficient use of reason just before you fall asleep and just after you wake up–unless you are jolted back into the waking world for some reason. It normally takes your brain at least a few seconds to spool up your FTL reason drive.

The condition of a person having a lucid dream is in many respects simliar to that of a person who is drunk: Drunks thinks that they have more control than they do. That’s why they get behind the wheels of cars and go driving when in fact they are totally unsafe drivers at the moment.

They even do have a measure of control–they can drive, or try to drive, the car wherever they want. They’re just don’t have enough control to drive in a responsible manner, even though they think that they do because their reason has been impaired and it keeps them from recognizing this.

It’s the same with lucid dreamers. They feel like they are in control of their actions, and they do have a measure of control of the dream. They can drive, or try to drive, the dream wherever they want it to go. They just don’t have enough control over themselves to dream in a manner that triggers full human responsibility. They may think they do, but they don’t, because while they’re asleep their reason has been impaired, whether they recognize this or not.

Lucid dreamers, like dreamers in general, simply do not have the level of reason needed to perform fully human acts, and so they are not capable of committing mortal sin.

They may feel in control. They may even have moral-theological debates with themselves in the dream about whether it is right or wrong to undertake a particular course of action. But they lack the reason necessary for mortal sin.

Period.

So don’t worry about that.

On the other hand, don’t go training yourself to do lucid dreaming if you intend to use it as a means of engaging in sinful fantasy behavior. That would count as doing something while you’re awake to deliberately bring on sinful dream content.