By Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

This column was adapted from the archbishop’s comments to a breakfast gathering of faculty, leadership and students of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, March 2, 2010.

I’ve been asked to offer a few thoughts about the Catholic identity of Catholic higher education. As I was gathering my thoughts for this morning, I remembered two articles. Neither is recent. But each is even more important today than when it appeared.

The first was published on the Web in 2002. The author Francis Fukuyama spoke at the Carnegie Council, and then he took questions from an audience.  His theme was “Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution.” The council then posted the transcription to the Internet. The second article appeared in 2004. Bill Joy, a scientist and mathematician, wrote it for Wired magazine. The title speaks for itself:  “Why the future doesn’t need us.”

Each of these men has an outstanding mind. Neither, to my knowledge, is religious. Both are deeply pro-science and pro-technology. But both describe possible futures that should sober us all — futures where the technology we create undermines important things we thinkwe know about human nature, human rights and human dignity. And the most unsettling thing about both men is that they have the insight to see and understand the problems we face. They also have the good will to worry about them. But they don’t have the moral framework to offer any convincing solutions.

In his Carnegie remarks, Fukuyama made an observation that’s worth dwelling on. He said: “When (Thomas Jefferson) was on his deathbed in 1824, (Jefferson) wrote: ‘one of the reasons we can be optimistic about the future of the United States and of progress, is that Nature has not conspired to create certain people that were born with saddles on their backs, and others born booted and spurred to ride them.’”

Having quoted Jefferson, Fukuyama then added this comment of his own: The technologies we will have within the next two decades “will give us the capability, in effect, to create people that are either born with saddles on their backs, or born booted and spurred.” This is not fantasy or science-fiction. It’s fact, or soon will be.

If we want to know why a truly Catholic education is so urgent, the answer is right there in Fukuyama’s words. As a nation, we’ve created a culture that behaves like the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Neil Postman once called us the world’s first emerging “technopoly” — a society where the real organizing principle is technological progress in its narrowest sense, and every other social value is subordinated to it.

We have the knowledge to unlock the power of creation, but we lack the wisdom and the humility to use it for real human progress. Our definition of “progress” is limited and confused. It ignores the most vital part of what it means to be really “human”: our spirit. We don’t fully understand the power that we unlock, or its implications. In fact, many of us no longer really believe that a unique and permanent “human nature” exists.

The genius of a Catholic education is to anchor the yearnings, the brilliance and the glory of the human mind in the greatness of God. Man has no security outside the guarantees of God’s love. If we deny Him, we deny ourselves. If we do not know Him, we cannot know ourselves.

And this is why, when Catholic institutions of higher learning soften or dilute their bonds to the Church, or treat Catholic teaching as somehow separate from serious intellectual life, they’re not becoming more progressive or more relevant. They’re choosing to beirrelevant because they have nothing new and confident to say to the world around them. They’re betraying themselves, their students and the culture that Jesus Christ calls them to sanctify. Jesus Christ is Lord. The Church is his bride and our mother and teacher. If these two facts don’t burn in the heart of a Catholic university, its leaders and its faculty, and through them, in the lives of its students, then it’s just another cup of salt that has lost its flavor — and its purpose.

The greatness of  the Catholic university is not just its academic excellence, which is vital and admirable and does honor to the great Catholic intellectual tradition. Its real greatness is the Christian humanism — given life by the Catholic faith — that educates and makes new the whole person: mind, body and spirit. That’s what sets it apart. If a “Catholic” university is Catholic, really, faithfully, unapologetically Catholic, the future will have the kind of articulate and morally mature leaders we need.

I began with a couple of voices worried about the future. I want to end with a voice from the past who knew the peace of God’s presence in a world just as confused and anxious as our own. St. Augustine lived his ministry as a bishop in an age when everything solid in the old Roman world was unraveling. His people lived with constant fear and uncertainty. The encouragement Augustine gave to them was this: “Bad times, hard times — this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times. Such as we are, such are the times.”

You and I — faculty, parents, students, clergy and administrators — and all of the lives that every Catholic university touches: We are the times. And we can shape the future with our zeal and faith and Christian love from this moment forward. So let us live well, and times will be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such as we love, such as we do — such are the times.

Brothers and Sisters,

I have recently been feeling alone. I have been looking for human interaction. If you know me, you know I’m a social person and that I love to be around people. During winter term at Elon, there aren’t many people here and my roommates are pretty much gone. I’m trying to learn how to live alone, but that’s not how our Maker created us.

In Genesis, God says “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (1:26) That image, that likeness is that of the Trinity, that is defined by relation. In our creed, we talk about Jesus Christ, “begotten” of the Father and the Holy Spirit “proceeding from the Father and Son” (Nicene Creed). We know God in the trinity through relationships. We know each other, as human persons, through relationships. We are relational beings and so, when we have no relations, we are lonely.

However…

Jesus also says “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). From the creation story, we know that it is not good for man to be alone. We all know how good it feels to really feel appreciated, to feel loved by someone, to feel wanted, if even for just a little bit. We don’t want to be alone, but why? Because God created us for union. He created us to be connected. Connected to whom? Each other? A spouse? A random hook-up? No. Connected to HIM! The ultimate union. Union with the Almighty in Heaven!

God created us out of love “and the sole reason God created us is to share his eternal bliss and beatitude with us”(TOBE 18). He gives us the earthly union of man and woman to foreshadow the beauty of what we will receive in heaven. I’m very excited about getting married one day, leaving my father and mother and becoming one with a woman, but I can’t imagine how much greater that union with God will be. Imagine it.

What if we lived for that union with God? What if we put our efforts into loving the One who created and loved us enough to share his wonderful creation with us? What if…

Here’s an article about the digital continent that everyone is moving to. Check it out.

Bishop Arthur Serratelli (Catholic News Agency)

The Internet, email, Twitter, Facebook, mobile phones and iPods are creating a major cultural phenomenon in society. And this is happening almost overnight. Black and white television broadcasting began in the United States on July 1, 1941. It took 10 years for 4 million TV sets to be sold and 13 years for television to reach 50 million users. After the iPod was introduced, it took only nine months for 1 billion applications to be downloaded.

There are many advantages to the digital continent on which we now live. We can learn the news, seek information and do research at the touch of our fingers. Businesses and universities can conduct their work interactively. And, we can stay in touch with family and friends instantly even at great distances.

Yet, there are disadvantages as well. Information is not edited. Anyone can post anything on the internet. Opinions can appear as truth. False information can masquerade as fact.  And, personal identities can be hidden. Furthermore, the Internet can be co-opted for prurient interests. Every second, 28,258 Internet users view pornography. In 47% percent of families, this has become a problem. Nine out of ten children between the ages of eight and sixteen are unwillingly exposed to pornography on the Internet. One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the Internet encounters unwanted sexual solicitation.  Predators employ the Internet to contact the young, to engage them in sexually explicit conversations and sometimes to set up meetings to abuse them.

With all its advantages and misuses, the new means of communication are now radically altering the very way we relate to each other socially. Without face to face conversation, we can distance ourselves from the immediate impact of our words on the other. We can hurt another and be detached at the same time. The other is affected and we remain immune from their feelings. This is a true loss in the quality of interpersonal relationships.

The thrill of virtual connectedness with so many individuals at great ease disguises the challenges inherent in forming good relationships. It creates a false sense of connectedness. In fact, an immersion in social networking through digital communication takes away from interacting with those close at hand.

Text-messaging someone at a distance removes the individual from actual quality face time with family, classmates or coworkers right before them. The young person using an iPod during dinner may be very well in tune with his or her favorite pop singer and, at the same time, be totally out of touch with the family at the table. If this practice of communicating with those at a distance and ignoring those close at hand becomes a habit, the individual effectively can withdraw from the real world.

Nonetheless, it is important to note that the thrill that lifts up so many who experience connectedness on the digital continent is actually rooted in the fundamental structure of the human person. We are made to communicate with each other.  As Pope Benedict XVI has said, “When we find ourselves drawn towards other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God’s call — a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion” (Pope Benedict XVI, Message for 2009 World Day of Communication).

We have been created in the image and likeness of God. And, God is communio. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons, equal, distinct, in eternal relatedness to each other. To make best use of the new technology, our communication itself should mirror God in whose image we have been made.

Thus, every communication should be marked by at least three basic qualities. First, there must be a generous giving of self to the other. Just as the Father does not hold back all he is, but gives all that he is to the Son, we should be open and generous to the other, not using the other for our own self-gratification. Second, just as the Son is the Word uttered by the Father and is, therefore, Truth itself, all our words need to be truthful. We should not spread misinformation or disseminate falsehood. Third, just as the Holy Spirit is the bond of unity between the Father and the Son, our communication with the other should draw us closer together. It should never isolate us from others. Rather, it should connect us in mutual care and concern for each other.

When our use of the new means of social networking is self-giving, truthful and loving, it then becomes “ a reflection of our participation in the communicative and unifying Love of God, who desires to make of all humanity one family” (Pope Benedict XVI, Message for 2009 World Day of Communication). And, then our migration to the digital continent moves us closer to our true home in heaven.

* Bishop Serratelli is the bishop of Paterson, New Jersey.

A friend from Rome sent me this explanation of why we use the Advent wreath. Be educated.

Straight Answers By Fr. William Saunders
^{HERALD Columnist}

A Baptist friend asked me about the Advent wreath — its history, meaning, etc.. I think I gave her a pretty good answer. Perhaps you could provide a little more information. — An “e-mail“ reader

The Advent wreath is part of our long-standing Catholic tradition. However, the actual origins are uncertain. There is evidence of pre-Christian Germanic peoples using wreathes with lit candles during the cold and dark December days as a sign of hope in the future warm and extended-sunlight days of Spring. In Scandinavia during Winter, lighted candles were placed around a wheel, and prayers were offered to the god of light to turn “the wheel of the earth” back toward the sun to lengthen the days and restore warmth.

By the Middle Ages, the Christians adapted this tradition and used Advent wreathes as part of their spiritual preparation for Christmas. After all, Christ is “the Light that came into the world” to dispel the darkness of sin and to radiate the truth and love of God (cf. John 3:19-21). By 1500, both Catholics and Lutherans had more formal practices surrounding the Advent wreath.

The symbolism of the Advent wreath is beautiful. The wreath is made of various evergreens, signifying continuous life. Even these evergreens have a traditional meaning which can be adapted to our faith: The laurel signifies victory over persecution and suffering; pine, holly, and yew, immortality; and cedar, strength and healing. Holly also has a special Christian symbolism: The prickly leaves remind us of the crown of thorns, and one English legend tells of how the cross was made of holly. The circle of the wreath, which has no beginning or end, symbolizes the eternity of God, the immortality of the soul, and the everlasting life found in Christ. Any pine cones, nuts, or seedpods used to decorate the wreath also symbolize life and resurrection. All together, the wreath of evergreens depicts the immortality of our soul and the new, everlasting life promised to us through Christ, the eternal Word of the Father, who entered our world becoming true man and who was victorious over sin and death through His own passion, death, and resurrection.

The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. A tradition is that each week represents one thousand years, to sum to the 4,000 years from Adam and Eve until the Birth of the Savior. Three candles are purple and one is rose. The purple candles in particular symbolize the prayer, penance, and preparatory sacrifices and goods works undertaken at this time. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, when the priest also wears rose vestments at Mass;Gaudete Sunday is the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent, when their preparation is now half over and they are close to Christmas. The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord=s first coming into the world and the anticipation of His second coming to judge the living and the dead.

The light again signifies Christ, the Light of the world. Some modern day adaptions include a white candle placed in the middle of the wreath, which represents Christ and is lit on Christmas Eve. Another tradition is to replace the three purple and one rose candles with four white candles, which will be lit throughout Christmas season.

In family practice, the Advent wreath is most appropriately lit at dinner time after the blessing of the food. A traditional prayer service using the Advent wreath proceeds as follows: On the First Sunday of Advent, the father of the family blesses the wreath, praying: AO God, by whose word all things are sanctified, pour forth Thy blessing upon this wreath, and grant that we who use it may prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ and may receive from Thee abundant graces. Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.” He then continues for each of the days of the first week of Advent, AO Lord, stir up Thy might, we beg thee, and come, that by Thy protection we may deserve to be rescued from the threatening dangers of our sins and saved by Thy deliverance. Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.” The youngest child then lights one purple candle.

During the second week of Advent, the father prays: AO Lord, stir up our hearts that we may prepare for Thy only begotten Son, that through His coming we may be made worthy to serve Thee with pure minds. Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.” The oldest child then lights the purple candle from the first week plus one more purple candle.

During the third week of Advent, the father prays: AO Lord, we beg Thee, incline Thy ear to our prayers and enlighten the darkness of our minds by the grace of Thy visitation. Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.” The mother then lights the two previously lit purple candles plus the rose candle.

Finally, the father prays during the fourth week of Advent, AO Lord, stir up Thy power, we pray Thee, and come; and with great might help us, that with the help of Thy grace, Thy merciful forgiveness may hasten what our sins impede. Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.” The father then lights all of the candles of the wreath.

Since Advent is a time to stir-up our faith in the Lord, the wreath and its prayers provide us a way to augment this special preparation for Christmas. Moreover, this good tradition helps us to remain vigilant in our homes and not lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas.

Fr. Saunders is dean of the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College and pastor of Queen of Apostles Parish, both in Alexandria