Summary of the Summary of the Synod

Here's my shorter version of the Synod on the New Evagelization's Concluding Message. The concluding message can be read in full here. It has 14 points, and I've picked portions of each point that stood out to me while reading them. A few of the points had a good deal of material in them that were very difficult to pull out some short portion as a summary. It's worth reading in full, though not easy to do so. The final message from the synod will be a document that Pope Benedict will prepare in the coming months.

Summarized from the text of the 14 points:
1. Like the Samaritan woman at the well
It shows that whoever receives new life from encountering Jesus cannot but proclaim truth and hope to others. The sinner who was converted becomes a messenger of salvation and leads the whole city to Jesus. The people pass from welcoming her testimony to personally experiencing the encounter: “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world”.

2. A new evangelization
Benedict XVI recalled that it is an evangelization that is directed “principally at those who, though baptized, have drifted away from the Church and live without reference to the Christian life... to help these people encounter the Lord, who alone fills our existence with deep meaning and peace; and to favor the rediscovery of the faith, that source of grace which brings joy and hope to personal, family and social life”

3. The personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the Church
The Church is the space offered by Christ in history where we can encounter him, because he entrusted to her his Word, the Baptism that makes us God's children, his Body and his Blood, the grace of forgiveness of sins above all in the sacrament of Reconciliation, the experience of communion that reflects the very mystery of the Holy Trinity, the strength of the Spirit that generates charity towards all.
The beauty of faith must particularly shine in the actions of the sacred Liturgy, above all in the Sunday Eucharist. It is precisely in liturgical celebrations that the Church reveals herself as God's work and renders the meaning of the Gospel visible in word and gesture.

4. The occasions of encountering Jesus and listening to the Scriptures
We recall, for example, how Jesus engaged Peter, Andrew, James and John in the context of their work, how Zaccheus was able to pass from simple curiosity to the warmth of sharing a meal with the Master, how the Roman centurion asked him to heal a person dear to him, how the man born blind invoked him as liberator from his own marginalization, how Martha and Mary saw the hospitality of their house and of their heart rewarded by his presence. By going through the pages of the Gospels as well as the apostles' missionary experiences in the early Church, we can discover the various ways and circumstances in which persons' lives were opened to Christ's presence.

5. Evangelizing ourselves and opening ourselves to conversion
We know that we must humbly recognize our vulnerability to the wounds of history and we do not hesitate to recognize our personal sins. We are, however, also convinced that the Lord's Spirit is capable of renewing his Church and rendering her garment resplendent if we let him mold us. This is demonstrated by the lives of the Saints, the remembrance and narration of which is a privileged means of the new evangelization.

6. Seizing new opportunities for evangelization in the world today
Despite the intense sufferings for which we welcome migrants as brethren, migrations have been and continue to be occasions to spread the faith and build communion in its various forms. Secularization – as well as the crisis brought about the ascendancy of politics and of the State – requires the Church to rethink its presence in society without however renouncing it. The many and ever new forms of poverty open new opportunities for charitable service: the proclamation of the Gospel binds the Church to be with the poor and to take on their sufferings like Jesus. Even in the most bitter forms of atheism and agnosticism, we can recognize – although in contradictory forms – not a void but a longing, an expectation that awaits an adequate response.

7. Evangelization, the family and consecrated life
A new evangelization is unthinkable without acknowledging a specific responsibility to proclaim the Gospel to families and to sustain them in their task of education.
Our thoughts also went to the many families and couples living together which do not reflect that image of unity and of lifelong love that the Lord entrusted to us.
To all of them we want to say that God's love does not abandon anyone, that the Church loves them, too, that the Church is a house that welcomes all, that they remain members of the Church even if they cannot receive sacramental absolution and the Eucharist.
Precisely because it is totally consecrated to him in the exercise of poverty, chastity and obedience, consecrated life is the sign of a future world that relativizes everything that is good in this world.

8. The ecclesial community and the many agents of evangelization
The role of the parish emerges above all as the presence of the Church where men and women live, “the village fountain”, as John XXIII loved to call it, from which all can drink, finding in it the freshness of the Gospel.
The various forms of participation and co-responsibility of the faithful must also be promoted…With regard to the laity, a special word goes to the various forms of old and new associations, together with the ecclesial movements and the new communities: All are an expression of the richness of the gifts that the Spirit bestows on the Church.

9. That the youth may encounter Christ
We want to support them in their search and we encourage our communities to listen to, dialogue with and respond boldly and without reservation to the difficult condition of the youth…. The youth's active role in evangelizing first and foremost their world is to be recognized.

10. The Gospel in dialogue with human culture and experience and with religions
Evangelization requires that we pay much attention to the world of social communication, especially the new media, in which many lives, questions and expectations converge. It is the place where consciences are often formed, where people spend their time and live their lives. It is a new opportunity for touching the human heart.

11. Remembering the Second Vatican Council and referring to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the Year of Faith
We thank the Holy Father for the gift of the Year of Faith, an exquisite portal into the path of the new evangelization. We thank him also for having linked this Year to the grateful remembrance of the opening of the Second Vatican Council fifty years ago. Its fundamental magisterium for our time shines in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is proposed once more as a sure reference of faith twenty years after its publication.

12. Contemplating the mystery and being at the side of the poor
The first is constituted by the gift and experience of contemplation. A testimony that the world would consider credible can arise only from an adoring gaze at the mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, only from the deep silence that receives the unique saving Word like a womb. Only this prayerful silence can prevent the word of salvation from being lost in the many noises that overrun the world.
The other symbol of authenticity of the new evangelization has the face of the poor. Placing ourselves side by side with those who are wounded by life is not only a social exercise, but above all a spiritual act because it is Christ's face that shines in the face of the poor:
The gesture of charity, on the other hand, must also be accompanied by commitment to justice, with an appeal that concerns all, poor and rich. Hence, the social doctrine of the Church is integral to the pathways of the new evangelization, as well as the formation of Christians to dedicate themselves to serve the human community in social and political life.

13. To the Churches in the various regions of the world
The vision of the Bishops gathered in the synodal assembly embraces all the ecclesial communities spread throughout the world. Their vision seeks to be comprehensive, because the call to encounter Christ is one, while keeping diversity in mind.

14. The star of Mary illumines the desert
As stars shine more brightly at night in the desert, so the light of Mary, Star of the new evangelization, brightly shines in heaven on our way. To her we confidently entrust ourselves.

Can the math work for Romney's tax rate cuts?  The Laffer Curve is not a laughing matter.  It's the growth.

I have a little twist on an old saying.  If you give a man a fish, he can eat for a day.  If you teach a man to fish, he can feed himself for a lifetime.  If you take the man's fish to redistribute them to others, he'll stop fishing and get in line for free fish.

Now in my little story, it might all depend upon the number of fish taken from the fisherman (his tax rate) to redistribute.  If you are only taking 2 out of 100, I'm sure he'd keep fishing.  Leave him 2 out of 100, he's more likely to leave it up to someone else to do the work.  Take 50 out of 100 but 750 out of 1,000; and he might  fish for an hour but he'll be less interested in outfitting a new boat in order to get a larger number of fish but with a diminishing return for him.  The varying effect that the tax rate has on gross product is what Professor Arthur Laffer years ago drew up as the "Laffer Curve".

When it comes to the recent discussions of how Romney's proposed tax rate cut would "cost" the government, they are looking for him to explain how he would make up for the lower rates by only reducing deductions on the individual's own return.  "The math doesn't work" they tell you.  "There aren't enough tax deductions or loopholes to close to make up for the lower rate".  I've seen Bill Clinton explaining for his own self how even if you eliminate all of his deductions, the lower rate applied to the remaining income results in a lower overall tax.  But all of these calculations are based on there being no growth.  If Bill Clinton were paying a combined state and federal marginal income tax on the next speech honorarium of 65%, he might say "pass" rather than taking in the remaining 35%.  Cut his marginal rate on combined taxes to 25%, and he might do an extra speech per week.

With the extra income coming in, Bill might decide to hire both an extra speech writer and travel secretary.  The naysayers to the Romney tax cut play a "zero sum game" in which the same gross domestic product results regardless of the tax rate.  If Bill hires two additional employees that might otherwise been out of work, then their income increases the gross that the lower rate is applied to as well.  Which works better to grow the economy, offering those two people a $2,000 tax decrease when they have no job, or a new job for $20,000 or more.

An increase in the growth of gross domestic product won't normally offset a tax rate cut in just a year or two.  The advantage comes by compounding the growth, each year you are going up by some percentage of an increasing number.  If Gross Domestic Product grows by 2.5% per year (a greater rate than it has been) it would take about twice the number of years for it to double compared to a 5.0%, and by the time GDP doubles at a 2.5% rate it has quadrupled with a 5.0% rate.  The rate after a tax rate cut has been at times over 8%, though it has usually been followed within a couple of years with a rate increase, slowing the economy back down prior to reaching the point of the tax revenue catching up from the lower rate on the higher gross.

When they say that there is no historical evidence that it works that is mainly due to the fact that they've failed to leave the rate cuts in place long enough.  In Romney's plan he plans to offset in part not from growth but a lowering of deductions.  Might it hurt the middle class if they did away with a deduction like home mortgage interest?  Not so much if they simply raise the standard deduction and personal exemptions enough so that you might completely exclude so that a married couple (without considering children) get the first $25,000 of income exempted compared to about $19,000 currently.  You'd likely then be losing out on the deduction if your annual interest was something over $10,000 year while having a lower rate to pay on whatever taxable income you might still have left.  You could do away with a number of deductions altogether without effecting the middle class just by upping the amount that is first exempt.

Obviously there are so many possible variables taking effect over some years that is impossible to come up with much in the way of specifics.  But is there any reason to expect a tax rate cut would not result in a growing economy?  Take the flip side and consider how many fish would you bring in with a 100% tax.  There wouldn't be a decline in economic growth with an increase in the tax rate?

It WAS a Wonderful Life.  Potters National Bank received federal bailout money as being TOO BIG to fail, though Bailey's Savings & Loan went under.  But Potters turned down a loan to the "Little Shop Around the Corner", which went  under from the competition from Fox Books when they opened their thousandth store in town thanks to financing by Potters (didn't last for long thanks to Amazoom).  Both Marcus Welby MD and HankMed closed their private practice unable to keep up with all the new regulations and took staff positions at Pottersville General Hospital.  At least, that might happen without Mr. Smith going to Washington.

In the last presidential debate there was a discussion on federal regulation.  Mitt Romney acknowledged that regulation was necessary to a free market world, but that it shouldn't be excessive.  He suggested that you can't have people opening banks and making loans from their garages, but that it had been a mistake to make a handful of banks as too big to fail and guaranteed by the federal government while a number of community and small banks had failed.

President Obama's response included: "Now, it wasn't just on Wall Street. You had loan officers were -- that were giving loans and mortgages that really shouldn't have been given, because the folks didn't qualify. You had people who were borrowing money to buy a house that they couldn't afford."  George Bailey was making bad loans?  Well maybe that was due to the pressures being put on him by the WALNUT Community Organizing group protesting in his bank and at his residence?  Weren't Chris Dodd and Barney Frank also encouraging banks to loosen their mortgage loan standards in order to increase home ownership?

In my opinion, Catholic Social Teaching calls for a distribution of wealth that would mean lowering the number of people employed by increasing the number that OWN their own Small Businesses.  BIG Government has favored BIG Business, often meaning BIG Unions with both Big Business and Big Unions making BIG political contributions.  While the two parties often seemed to be characterized as the one for the people versus the one for big business, big government tends to have excessive regulation of small business which then favors big business.  I was a bit surprised how Mitt Romney actually seemed to make that point in talking about how the classification of some banks as "too big to fail" had resulted in the closing of smaller banks.

I think what defines small business has to be greatly expanded.  Having a number of regulations starting with 50 employees or $200,000 in income seems way too small to me; and both numbers need to be multiplied by at least ten in order to truly distinguish small businesses from large businesses.  It can still be a wonderful life!

New Evangelization Synod

During the Synod on the New Evangelization, I have been browsing through some of the various short interventions offered by the bishops there.  Their comments are generally based upon questions raised by the "Lineamenta" for the Synod.  Fortunately for them, they've had over a year to look over it and draw up their remarks.   I've not read over it as carefully, but have picked some questions that I found interesting to remark upon.

The questions that caught my attention:
" How have the two preceding ordinary general assemblies of the Synod of Bishops helped Christian communities increase the quality of their listening to the Word of God in our Churches? How have they helped to increase the quality of our Eucharistic celebrations?  What elements have received greater acceptance? What reflections and suggestions are still awaiting reception?"
"Are our Christian communities well-aware of the practice of "initial proclamation"? Is it generally taking place in our Christian communities?"  "How successful have Christian communities been able to adapt the process of instruction in the faith to adults, thereby avoiding the danger of limiting it to infants only?"

I am part of the generation in which while attending Catholic school during the time of Vatican II, Catechisms seemed to be suddenly cast aside in favor of making collages.  I expect many of us had no clue as to why this was being done.  Was it that we could forget all that we had memorized up until that point, the Church has now changed her teachings?  The important thing seemed to be what "feelings" are you "experiencing", and what you felt took priority over what you knew.

I can only guess that what was going on was that it was felt that people were memorizing responses in the Catechisms of that day without taking it to heart.  That what was felt to be lacking what they are now referring to as the "initial proclamation", coming from a personal encounter or relationship with Christ.  As the Lineamenta puts it:
    "At the time, the expression 'initial proclamation' was taken over and utilized in restructuring the process of introduction to the faith. Intended to be addressed to non-believers, namely, those who are indifferent to religion, initial proclamation has, generally speaking, the function of both proclaiming the Gospel and calling to conversion those who until now do not know Jesus Christ. Catechesis, distinct from the initial proclamation of the Gospel, promotes growth in this initial conversion and provides instruction in the faith to those who have converted, thus incorporating them into the Christian community."

It would seem to me that for at least a generation, and perhaps continuing to this day, catechesis was largely abandoned in favor of "initial proclamation".  It often seemed designed to deepen a personal relationship based mainly on feelings. Adding to the problem was that some of what went with it was "who do you throw off the lifeboat so that the others might survive" while never presenting what a Catholic approach might be. Add to this that for many people, the only instruction they'd ever attend was due to Sacrament preparation and what you would hear in a Sunday homily.  When the question is asked in the Synod about the results of the previous two synods, I would wonder what percent of the laity (or even clergy) are aware there have been Synods and what they said?

I would think that the relationship between "Initial Proclamation" and "Catechesis" might be compared to having "fallen in love" and "growing in love".  While it may seem that you can "fall in love at first sight", true love requires knowing your love.  You'll make little sense in trying to explain your attraction towards a person to another if you can only talk about your feelings when you know little about your "love".  Feelings can come and go.

I see the "New Evangelization" as requiring maintaining a link between personal encounter with catechesis.   For years, if you wanted to grow in knowledge of your faith it was entirely up to you.  While catechesis could and should be strengthened in Sacramental preparation, homilies and parish based programs; it will never be enough.  The laity will need to continue to educate themselves while using reliable resources, and then not only making that initial proclamation but sharing catechesis resources with other while developing spiritual friendships.  Though anyone that gets to know God, knows that God is love.  "They will know we are Christians by our love."