March 2009

oh say, can you see!!

Fix your eyes in the center of the image for at least 30 seconds and try not to avert your gaze during this time. Now close your eyes and tilt your head back. You will see a circle of light. Continue to look at the circle and you will see an astonishing image slowly appear.

This occurs often. We are looking at something and the truth appears just beneath it. We just have to remain alert...

December 2008

More than just a bump in the road

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had not yet officially accepted her party’s nomination to run as vice president of the United States when news broke out about her teen daughter’s pregnancy. Not surprising the media frenzy that ensued had candidates on both tickets demanding that families be kept out of the political campaign battles. The truth is that the Gov. Palin’s daughter was just the latest teen pregnancy to capture the national spotlight.

When Jamie Lynn Spears, the 17-year-old sister of pop singer Britney Spears and the star of her own kids show on cable, announced she was pregnant, the magazine that ran the exclusive story reported record sales. Pregnant unwed celebrities have become the latest Hollywood rage and their “baby bumps” are portrayed as nothing more than a fashionable accessory.

Today’s youth are readily exposed to sex and drugs on television, movies, music videos and the Internet. Young people are constantly bombarded with sexual messages from the entertainment world. Rap music and hip hop, with their particular emphasis on sex and demeaning depictions of women, is often blamed for glamorizing and promoting sexual behavior among teens.

But teen pregnancies are nothing new in the Hispanic community with Latinas more likely to get pregnant before their 20th birthday than other girls. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, 51 percent of Hispanic girls become pregnant at least once before age 20, compared to 35 percent of all adolescent girls. Studies show that teen parents end up living in poverty and dropping out of school. It is virtually impossible for teens to responsibly take on the emotional and financial demands of being a parent.

As Palin’s very public acceptance of her 17-year-old-daughter’s pregnancy shows, the stigma once associated with teen pregnancy has changed. But have we gone too far in letting our teens think it is acceptable to have sex and procreate, while they are essentially still children themselves? The reality is that unlike Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears, most teenagers don’t have the financial resources or emotional support to become responsible parents.

While it is important to love and support teens facing the challenges of early parenthood, it is also vital to educate our children to prevent, as much as possible, that they become parents in the first place. We must teach our children about the importance of attaining a higher education, the maturity and stability required to bring children into this world, and the value of bringing babies into a loving family. As we celebrate the Christmas season and the Holy Family, it is important that we realize God chose a loving father and mother as parents for his Son. And it was in the heart of this loving family that Jesus became a man.

Which can be done in your family, parish or community to help reduce the level of teen parenthood? Do  teens realize what becoming parents entails in terms of education, finances, and health?

NOVEMBER 2008:

The status of the economy and immigration

An issue that was barely mentioned during the presidential campaign was immigration since everyone was more concerned over the crisis in the economy. During times of serious financial difficulties and uncertainty over jobs, mortgages, social and health insurance, the anti-immigrant sentiments tend to worsen. It is almost a logical consequence that there has to be a culprit and a solution. It is clear in the minds of many people that the culprits are those who came to take away jobs from the citizens who were already here. The solution is to close the doors, deport the undocumented, and redistribute  existing jobs. It seems so simplistic that it isn’t worth the trouble responding to such arguments. For a long time the U.S. bishops have been campaigning to promote a fair reform of immigration laws.

As Catholics, we believe that we are all God’s people, brought together by Christ, who shattered the divisions that had existed between the Jews and those from other cultures and ethnicities. St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians (2:14-15), “For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. He abolished the Jewish law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace.” We are also reminded in the gospel that we must welcome strangers in the same way we would welcome Jesus, and whatever we do for others we do for Him.

While Jesus may have told us to welcome the stranger, care for the poor, feed the hungry and visit those imprisoned,  in this and in many nations, fear has made us suspicious of those who are different or belong to another culture or ethnic group. It is a fear we witnessed during the presidential campaign, where Arabs or those who practice the Muslim faith were portrayed as terrorists. This fear has also fueled attacks on immigrants, the building of a wall on the US-Mexico border, raids on employers throughout the nation, deportations that separate families, and prejudice. Meanwhile, calls for solidarity with immigrants from the US Bishops are often met with hostility or apathy, even by Catholics, although the principles behind their statements are biblical and not political.

While every nation has the right to protect its borders, it is important that we acknowledge the realities that cause immigrants to abandon their homeland and families for an uncertain future in a new country. “The so-called ‘illegals’ are so not because they wish to defy the law; but because the law does not provide them any channels to regularize their status in our country—which needs their labor: they are not breaking the law, the law is breaking them,” said Most Rev. Thomas Wenski, Bishop of Orlando.

As a new political leadership takes over in the White House and US Congress, we must not waste time in demanding, as a community and church, they retake the issue of immigration reform and insist on policies of fairness that will not only keep the nation strong, but sets aside cultural fears and prejudices, provides fair opportunities for undocumented workers to attain a legal status, stops separating families, and addresses the economic injustices and repression that are at the heart of immigration.

OCTOBER 2008:

just before the elections

November is just around the corner and the upcoming elections will probably be one of those moments of great solitude in our lives, since it is unlikely our political convictions are the same as our parents, grandparents or even that of our friends. For those eligible to vote, it is possible this election may bring with it a moral dilemma. It may be even more aggravating since nobody will tell us how to vote. In that aspect we have to be totally free.

What we do know is what the church tells us, which proposes political responsibility as a moral obligation. That is, we must not “pass up” going to the voting booth or pretend to be deaf or indifferent to the circumstances affecting the country. Does the church tell us how to vote? No. The church is conscious that there is diversity of opinion and political directions, and that people must be consequent and free. What the church recommends is that you not take your vote lightly just because one candidate appears to be better than another, but base your decision on moral criteria and Christian values. Which candidate appears to present the fairest policies in social terms? Who do we think will defend the rights of workers? Who presents a more convincing economic policy? Who offers the most guarantees to work for a health care system that will care for the needs of the disadvantage? Who is most inclined to work for fair immigration policies? Who will fight on an international level for national security and at the same time for peace?

These are tough questions because they don’t always have clear answers and since one candidate may be convincing in one area but not in another. We must ask ourselves what are the most crucial issues, become inform on the candidates’ platforms, and make our decision without pressure from others or what those in media say, or what is fashionable or trendy.

Those who are ineligible to vote because they are not citizens should remember it is also their duty to vote in their native countries, as well as to participate in this nation in everything they legally can, including groups of reflection or activism, demonstrations and other forms of public expression, help those who are the victims of injustice, and of course, pray for this country, its leaders, and for the enactment of fair policies for everyone.

SEPTEMBER 2008:

"I have the right to be happy..."

We often hear this and even come to believe someone should grant us such a right; that our happiness depends on the certain things others can do for us or allow us to do. The problem is that our happiness does not depend on others and the fact that the United States Constitution guarantees the right of a person to pursue happiness is not an automatic right to be happy. That is, it is a personal undertaking. It does not say others have to make us happy by caving into our desires or even to our impulses.

It is said that one has to make an effort and look for what will make us happy. And just what might that be? What can satisfy us above all else? For some it could be attaining certain goals which in itself can be a marker, such as professional, academic or sports achievements. For others, happiness could consist of having all the material wealth and comforts one desires.

Several months ago, renowned journalist Tim Russert died while taping one of his news shows. In the television coverage about his life there was a testimony of Russert himself speaking of something he always said to his son: “Know you will always be loved, but never think you are entitled to have things given to you.” This message may seem harsh to some, but it is one of the most loving things a parent can tell a child so he or she can get ahead and become all they can be in this life.

Sometimes Hispanics, like other minorities, think that since society has not given us the opportunities that others have, we are owed something. However, there are times when the opportunity to attain something emerges, but if it requires some personal effort, we quickly drop it. Opportunities are not acquired rights but free offers we must take advantage of. No one is responsible for the happiness of another. Each person must follow their own destiny.
There’s more.  Jesus says those who lose their life will find it, while those who cling on to it will lose it. What does this mean? Probably that in seeking happiness in our material benefit or comfort in the end does not lead us anywhere. And that maybe we should look to realize God’s dream in our life—to become everything God wants for us—is the true way to happiness.

What do you think are your rights? Where do you look for happiness? Do you take advantage of the opportunities for education and development that are presented to you, even it is may mean personal sacrifices and effort?

AUGUST 2008:

Horoscopes, tarot & fortune-tellers

At one time or another you have surely looked at your horoscope or at the personality descriptions that are made according to your date of birth. It may be amusing, but it is quite clear that you cannot believe in it. It can be more or less harmless and may even have surprising coincidences at times, but believing in astral letters, fortune telling or enchantments can have its share of consequences and problems. For example, a friend tells how she saw the recipe in a magazine on how to attract a man. Apparently, it was not a one month thing; every month a different recipe appeared for attracting something else. Sometimes advertisements for these types of things appear alongside Catholic images and can be confused with traditional beliefs of the Church or with popular religiosity.

Charms, fortune-tellers, horoscopes, tarot cards, and many other forms of predicting the future, altering the future or putting us in contact with the dead, can be appealing to us. We cannot ignore those who are also attracted to wizards, potions, and conspiracies in an attempt to cause evil and harm to others. To many this may also stir curiosity. Others truly believe in their effectiveness. Nevertheless, to buy these objects or charms and pay for the services of wizards or fortune tellers can only serve to leave us with a little less than money in our pockets, a false sense of security, and take us into a world we are unfamiliar with.

The Catholic Church does not approve of these things, not because it wants people to become bored or it is bothered by the fun people have with horoscopes, for example. Neither is it true that it does not want the supposed good that can be derived from these enchantments. The Church simply considers that by putting faith into such objects, enchantments, spells, and tarot cards, it is usurping a power that can only belong to God. That is, by trying to control the future, the past, and even sickness and death, instead of strengthening our trust and dependency on God, what it does is enslaves us with formulas and making gods out of things that are not. We only have one God. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church these practices “contradict with the honor, respect, loving fear, which we owe to God alone.” (CCC 2116)

Whom or what do you trust? It may be possible that your scientific way of thinking prevents you from believing in God and the teachings of the Church because you consider them pretty much improbable. But what about these things? Are they more likely or probable?