7 Quick Takes Friday (#6)

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Today I'm officially graduating with my Master's in Pastoral Studies! Yay! Now, if I could only find work...

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Of course, I didn't go into the degree for the dough. I went because first I thought I wanted to be a DRE. Then, I thought I had a calling to be a hospital chaplain. Now, faced with a pile of student loan bills, like many of my fellow grads, I'd just be happy to get a job that is in my field.

Source

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So, what am I passionate about? While my academic and personal experience backgrounds are primarily in end-of-life issues, I've had a lot of beginning-of-life issues fall on my plate lately. These include but are not limited to: helping women with unplanned or crisis pregnancies, helping women with painful birth experiences, and reclaiming women's bodies from the abortion and birth control industries. A lot of this stems from the birth of my son. He was unplanned and his birth was traumatic. It makes me very, very sympathetic to women who are not as lucky as I was and those with much scarier stories than I do.

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Now, the funny thing about life issues is that they are all interrelated. When the use of contraceptives goes up, so does the abortion rate (I know the citation there is biased, just bear with me). When we start killing severely handicapped babies to "spare them pain", we are pressuring adults with disabilities to die as well. On the other side of that coin, I find it remarkably inconsistent for those who are "pro-life" to be war-mongers and pro-death penalty as well. For faithful Catholics, election day should be torture, because we cannot with a clear conscience vote either Republican or Democrat. It's as simple as that.

 

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It's all about the consistent life ethic:

If one contends, as we do, that the right of every fetus to be born should be protected by civil law and supported by civil consensus, then our moral, political and economic responsibilities do not stop at the moment of birth. Those who defend the right to life of the weakest among us must be equally visible in support of the quality of life of the powerless among us: the old and the young, the hungry and the homeless, the undocumented immigrant and the unemployed worker.

Such a quality of life posture translates into specific political and economic positions on tax policy, employment generation, welfare policy, nutrition and feeding programs, and health care.

—Cardinal Joseph Bernardin
in Consistent Ethic of Life (Sheed & Ward) 

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On a lighter note, another video my confirmation kids shared with me:

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So, a chapter of my life is over. I don't have to learn anymore, do I?

 



 

Nope, once a theology student, always a theology student. Especially if said theology student is wanting to become a Lay Dominican.

 



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