My object all sublime
I shall achieve in time —
To let the punishment fit the crime —
The punishment fit the crime;
And make each prisoner pent
Unwillingly represent
A source of innocent merriment!
Of innocent merriment!
Those were the sentiments of the great Mikado, or at least the ones attributed to him by Gilbert and Sullivan. However, if we might take the liberty to apply these words to another situation and time, then it might not be inappropriate to move them into the year 2o11 and see how they apply to one greater than an oriental potentate: to the Pope of Rome himself and the festival of youth known as "World Youth Day" (or Whoah! Yo' Day for the more urban minded, or Woo You Day for the more romantically inclined). Now this author is well aware of the recent words of Msgr. Galindo:
"Whoever is familiar with WYD knows that it is a stupendous occasion for evangelizing youth, a marvelous way for a personal encounter with Jesus in the presence of the Pope,” said Msgr. Delgado, who was looking forward to a career as an attorney before attending the 1989 World Youth Day in Santiago de Compostela and deciding to enter the seminary. “So the real protagonist is Christ, not the show, nor the multitude of young people. It can’t be considered the ‘Catholic Woodstock,’ a multicultural festival of Catholic young people which leaves no lasting trace when the lights go down.”(catholic culture.org)
One might be inclined to trust to the words of one in the curia that this will not be a "Catholic Woodstock" if one is in the habit of buying large New York bridges from unknown strangers, but given the past, and the vivid scenes of vacant or starry-eyes youths lounging in the presence of the Real Presence, half-clad and half-Catholic, one might take such warnings to heart. However, history and the abundant distribution of YouCat at the request of the Pope this coming 16th of August and the following fun-filled days make one even more skeptical. Now it is true that the layout of the book is slick and picture filled. It is also true that there are lots of stick figures to keep the attention, and that the little figure on the right corner pages is amusing when you flip the pages and make him jump and twirl upside down- but these portents of gravity somehow do not stem a growing pessimism.
One opens the book and sees myriads of smiling teens and realizes Catholicism must be an awfully fun religion. There's plenty of casualness in dress, and plenty of flesh to entertain the reader, and everyone pictured is having such a lovely time. This has got to be a good sign, right? After all, youth is about smiles, and about reading the bible, laying on hillsides, with a can of soda and munchies nigh at hand to feed the senses- yet those of the adult universe (besides those who envy youth and remain fixed mentally, spiritually, but not physically at 18 years old) cannot help sensing that all is not well. Surely the doctrine is better, right? It is a catechism, after all, and the Pope gives it such a warm endorsement in his pages at the beginning...
Well, one discovers many treasures of rationalistic biblical studies in the reminder that the biblical authors "...shared in the cultural ideas of the world around them and often were also dominated by its errors..." (except when they spoke directly of God, of course... but does that mean God demanding the death of the pagans in the Promised Land was an error about God? But this author digresses). There is, course the constant insistance of the equality of the sexes in the modern sense. The principle espoused concerning the relation of the sexes is interesting:
"Is there a priority of one sex over the other?
No. God endowed men and women with identical dignity as persons...."
One wonders about the very word "woman" as scripture explains it, that is, "from man". Now while both sexes have immortal souls, there is certainly a priority, for woman is made by God as a helpmate to man, not the other way around. So we are taught in marriage for wives to be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord. Youcat explains that discrimination in regard to the sexes is inhumane and unchristian. Where are we to find a christian view of the relation of man to woman? Nowhere. One might as well read the articles of the modern Democratic party.
Of course there is a question concerning our treatment of the environment, and another treating of animals in order that Youcat presses the right emotional buttons. We live, after all, under the pontificate of the first "green" pope...
Concerning love, there is one mistake after another. Love is defined as "the self-giving of the heart" and there is an exposition of the various ways humans love and our sharing in God's love, and all of this without any division of love in the will and the passion of love, of natural and supernatural love. Love is an univocal thing, and this destroys the infinite distance between the supernatural virtue of charity and natural, created loves. It is a blurring that is all too common among the followers of the "New Theology", one that leads naturally to the anonymous christian of Karl Rahner where all already love in one way or another with the Divine love.
There is no surprise that all forms of discrimination are abominated, despite the fact that God discriminates between the just and unjust, those who save their souls and those who will be damned by His just sentence. We can sum up this nonsense in the words of Youcat itself, an opinion contrary to every teaching of the Church and even common sense:
"Hence, every kind of social, racist, sexist, cultural, or religious discrimination against a person is an unacceptable injustice."
Did Hillary Clinton ghostwrite this book??
The list could go endlessly. Despite the glossy look, Youcat is quite worthy to sit beside the other poor attempts at catechesis that have marked the post-conciliar period. All of the liberal doctrines of the Council find their place in Youcat, and of course, this includes the super dogma of ecumenism. A final question and answer, quite unorthodox, will close this reflection on this attempt to evangelize youth. It is all too fitting that such a work be given as modern manna to the youth who are even now traveling to Spain in order to be present at yet another World Youth Day. Here indeed, the punishment fits the crime, Youcat for World Youth Day:
"Are non-Catholic christians our sisters and brothers also?
All baptised persons belong to the Church of Jesus Christ..."
May God send an auto de fe to Madrid!!
