Fatherless Kids

I’ve come to truly appreciate the value of fatherhood. It’s not something I read or was handed down, but it came to me in forms of slaps in face. Not one big one, but many medium size slaps and I’m still growing in this area. The more I understand, the more I realize the damage done one is without one.

Just yesterday I went out to play baseball with the boys and neighboring kids came out like flies. One by one they asked “can I play?”…”Sure”…I’d respond. In a matter of minutes we had six kids on each team with me as pitcher. At that instant, I asked myself, “where is there dad’s?”…The irony is that I’ve seen this for as long as I can remember. Never once did I find it odd that fathers were missing from the picture.

I just hope I can be a good enough father to my kids to give them the tools to be the men they should be.

Catholic Liberty

Before my scholastic lapse I was posting in catholic forums topics that were either in the realm of catholic liberty or were controversial in today’s social standards. Now, I know certain topics have a tendency of raising brows and emotions, but I always [naively] thought if anyone was able to withstand such topics, it would be Catholics; I was dead wrong.

I started a thread on contraceptive use with the conditions set out in Humanae Vitae 15:

15. On the other hand, the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from—provided such impediment is not directly intended for any motive whatsoever.

The starting post went as follows:

Is contraceptives ever justified?

Humanae Vitae 15 makes an exception in cases of disease. It doesn't clarify whether the disease has to be fatal or not but just that "the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means".

Granted, it does say only in cases where it "cures" and where there is no "motive whatsoever".

So this would seem to leave out AIDS on the grounds that it does not "cure" and not necessarily because it leaves out the possibility of procreation. As the same paragraph says "even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result there from".

So what if a form of contraceptive did cure AIDS? Would it then be allowed?

Essentially I was stuck on the fact that using condoms isn't always done with the intent to stop procreation or even because one lacks self control; maybe.....just maybe......they simply don't want to get AIDS and still fulfill the unitive aspect of catholic sexuality.

Unfortunately I wasn’t met with much charity. It’s like I wasn’t allowed to even dare ask such a question. It’s sad that some Catholics feel this way. The way I see it, it was dialogue and open inquiry that got the Church to clarify and grow in the first place. Hopefully that will change in the future.

Scholastic Life

I’ve been inept in all things scholastic as of late. Not really surfing the forums or reading articles, just busy with life as a husband, father, teacher, employee, and any other title I’ve missed. I don’t know how other fathers with a passion to lurk into history, science, theology, sports, etc. do it. Even when I do manage to slip in some time; it’s an hour at best.

But that’s what makes life interesting. I could be a hermit who reads all hours of the day and still end up thinking I don’t know enough. I’d probably slip into finding pottery or gardening interesting; who knows.