2018-07-06-eEdition

JULY 6 , 2018 THE CATHOLIC WEEK PAGE 3 Sat., Jul 7 4:30 p.m. Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Mass with Supper for the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre to Follow Sun., Jul 8 10:00 a.m. St. John the Baptist Parish, Grand Bay, Mass and Installation of Pastor Tue.-Thu., Jul 10-12 Annual Convention of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, Louisville, KY Fri., Jul 13 5:00 p.m. St. Columba Parish, Dothan, Annual KC Seminarian Banquet Sat., Jul 14 4:00 p.m. St. John the Baptist Parish, Montgomery, Mass and Installation of Pastor Sun., Jul 15 10:00 a.m. Our Lady Queen of Mercy Parish, Montgomery, Mass and Installation of Pastor Mon., Jul 16 8:00 a.m. Carmelite Monastery, Mobile, Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Sat., Jul 21 1:00 p.m. St. Michael the Archangel Parish, Auburn, Groundbreaking for the New Chapel for the Auburn Catholic Student Center Sun., Jul 22 8:00 a.m. St. Joseph Parish, Prattville, Mass and Installation of New Pastor 11:00 a.m. Holy Spirit Parish, Montgomery, Mass and Installation of New Pastor Archbishop’s Schedule July 7 - July 22 WJTC-Mobile/Pensacola/Ft. Walton/Wiregrass 11 am Sundays PROGRAM SCHEDULE www.catholicinamerica.com Check local listings July 8....... Military Chaplains in Combat /Religious Freedom July 15 ...................................... A Doctor’s Perspective on Life / ................................................................. Life: The First Civil Right July 22 .....................................................Teens Living Their Faith ......................................................... / World’s Biggest Bible Study DAILY READINGS JULY 8 - JULY 14 Sun., July 8 Ez 2:2-5 Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4 2 Cor 12:7-10 Mk 6:1-6 Mon., July 9 Hos 2:16, 17c-18, 21-22 Ps 145:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 Mt 9:18-26 Tue., July 10 Hos 8:4-7, 11-13 Ps 115:3-4, 5-6, 7ab-8, 9-10 Mt 9:32-38 Wed., July 11 Hos 10:1-3, 7-8, 12 Ps 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 Mt 10:1-7 Thurs., July 12 Hos 11:1-4, 8e-9 Ps 80:2ac and 3b, 15-16 Mt 10:7-15 Fri., July 13 Hos 14:2-10 Ps 51:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 14 and17 Mt 10:16-23 Sat., July 14 Is 6:1-8 Ps 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 6 Mt 10:24-33 Sun., July 15 Am 7:12-15 Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14 Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10 Mk 6:7-13 Mon. July 16 Is 1:10-17 Ps 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23 Mt 10:34-11:1 Tue., July 17 Is 7:1-9 Ps 48:2-3a, 3b-4, 5-6, 7-8 Mt 11:20-24 Wed., July 18 Is 10:5-7, 13b-16 Ps 94:5-6, 7-8, 8-10, 14-15 Mt 11:25-27 Thurs., July 19 Is 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 Ps 102:13-14ab and 15, 16-18, 19-21 Mt 11:28-30 Fri., July 20 Is 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8 Isaiah 38:10, 11abcd, 16 Mt 12:1-8 Sat., July 21 Mi 2:1-5 Ps 10:1-2, 3-4, 7-8, 14 Mt 12:14-21 JULY 15 - JULY 21 S AINT J OSEPH THE W ORKER May 1 Saint Lawrence of Brindisi Saint of the Day for July 21 (July 22, 1559 – July 22, 1619) The good and bad of latest ‘JurassicWorld’ WORD ON FIRE Bishop Robert Barron he original “Jurassic Park” film from 25 years ago rather inventively explored a theme that has been prominent in Western culture from the time of the Romantic reaction to the Enlightenment — namely, the dangers of an aggressive and ar- rogant rationalism. Beginning in the late 18th century, poets and philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau,Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Herder, William Blake, and John Keats warned that the lust to understand and control nature would result in disaster for both the human soul and for the physical world. Goethe, for instance, railed against the New- tonian scientific practice, which involved the intrusive question- ing of nature rather than the pa- tient and respectful contempla- tion of it. And Blake memorably complained of the “Satanic mills,” which is to say, the forges and factories that had begun to blight the English countryside with the onset of the Industrial Revolu- tion. But the most famous and influential meditation on this theme was undoubtedly Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein.” It is hardly accidental, of course, that the author in question was the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the greatest of the Roman- tic poets. As readers of Shelley’s book or viewers of the Boris Kar- lov movie can testify, Dr. Fran- kenstein’s successful attempt to create life artificially rather spec- tacularly backfired, producing misery on all sides. Shelley’s point was that seizing godlike author- ity over nature, though it perhaps satisfies our pride and our desire to dominate the world, in point of fact unleashes powers that we cannot, even in principle, control. John Hammond, the charac- ter played so genially by Richard Attenborough in the original “Ju- rassic Park,” was an updated and far friendlier version of Dr. Fran- kenstein. Blithely turning back the momentum of evolution and placing ferocious life forms in a combination zoo/amusement park, he perfectly embodied the typically modern, rationalistic at- titude that sees everything as an object of manipulation. That he was backed up by greedy finan- ciers and lawyers only made him more dangerous. Jeff Goldblum’s character, the quirky chaos theory specialist, gave voice, wisely, to the standard Romantic critique: “John, the kind of control you’re attempting here is, ah, it’s not possible.”That the chaos theorist had it right was bloodily proven in the original movie and in pret- ty much every iteration of “Juras- sic Park” since. Well, in the most recent in- stallment of the series, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” still other Dr. Frankensteins and John Hammonds emerge. This time they are an elderly tycoon, his youthful business colleague, a ruthless wrangler, and a whole coterie of unscrupulous arms- dealers willing to pay exorbitant prices so as to acquire and wea- ponize the dinosaurs. And once more, the tale is told through rampaging beasts and piles of corpses: “The kind of control you’re attempting here is, ah, it’s not possible.” Please don’t get me wrong: this is a good message. Mary Shelley was right and so are the makers of the “Jurassic Park” T movies.And if you want Catholic confirmation of this theme, take a good long look at Pope Francis’ letter “Laudato si,” which exco- riates our arrogant attempts to master and manipulate nature. What is bothersome in the lat- est film is the emergence of a new and much more problematic mo- tif — namely, the moral equiva- lence of human beings and other animals. The heroes of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” want to rescue the dinosaurs from Isla Nublar, which is threatened by a catastrophic volcanic eruption — and, as Jerry Seinfeld would say, there is nothing wrong with that. However, when the dinosaurs end up on the mainland in cages and are menaced by the release of toxic chemicals (watch the movie for the plot details), one of the heroes elects to open their pris- ons and let them go free, which is to say, to wander out into the forests of Northern California. The final scene of the film depicts a velociraptor looking down from a ridge over a densely-populated area, evidently free to hunt at will. As she presses the button, free- ing the dinosaurs, the young hero says, “We can’t let them die. I had to.They’re alive like me.”The pretty clear implication is that the dinosaurs have the same dignity as human beings and deserve to live as much as we do.They must be released, even if it means thou- sands of people will die. Well ... no. Nature should always be respected, and the ar- rogant attempt to manipulate nature indeed results in disas- ter. However, since there exists a qualitative difference between human beings and other living creatures, one must always, in a case of conflict, opt for the for- mer over the latter. The Bible is quite insistent on the goodness of nature and how the nonhuman world is ingredient in God’s great plan of salvation, but it is equally insistent that human beings are made specially in the image and likeness of God and hence have a unique dignity and inviolabil- ity. No matter how magnificent an animal might be, it is not a subject of infinite value, as is a human person, and when that distinction is blurred, another version of Frankenstein’s monster is unleashed. — Bishop Robert Barron is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.