The Gadfly Vol. XVII Iss. I
“To persuade and reproach” - Socrates, The Apology
Oct. 12, 2012
Living the Real When was the last time you looked at the stars? I mean really looked at the stars craning your neck till it hurts, trying to find the big and little dippers, searching for the brightest star in the night sky, standing with your mouth wide open in a dazed wonder?
times, we've looked at the stars before, and we've gone cloud-gazing often enough that we know what it all is. As we come to know more and more about the things around us, we tend to keep those everyday things in our peripheral vision. There's nothing new we haven't seen before. Familiarity leads to disinterest. Everything is humdrum. We've lost our sense of wonder.
wonders it can perform. It seems that with every new discovery of the reality around them, children stand in amazement and can't get enough of it.
Mirandum. It's the Latin word meaning "to marvel, to delight." In today's world, Or when was the last time you stopped in we've lost our ability for mirandum, the poetthe middle of your path just to marvel at a ry of the transcendent. Maybe it's because fuzzy caterpillar on the sidewalk, or an oddlywe're indifferent to everything that's around shaped leaf, or a strange formation of clouds? What is it about children that makes them us. We've become complacent in our own This doesn't happen too often. I mean: how marvel at most anything? With all the right realities where we know and understand all strange would it be if on your way to class intentions, loving parents will buy the coolest that is already known to us. But there's got to you saw someone crouching down, examining and most entertaining toys for their toddler be something fundamentally wrong with this. a crack in the sidewalk as a child does with a only to find that the child is most enthralled It's impossible to go through any ordinary magnifying glass and a ladybug? Is it strange by a piece of lint on the living room carpet. day without wondering at something, asking because that person would be acting like a questions, or wishing to learn something new. When a five-year old learns something little child? new, like how to work the DVD player, he We've seen fuzzy caterpillars plenty of can't stop fooling with it and gawking at the (“Real” on page 2)
A False Dichotomy: Why Catholicism Must Remain Supra-Political I have never been a fan of the terms conservative and liberal. They immediately, at least in present days, evoke strong political connotations. They conjure up strong feelings regarding those issues which affect the human person every single day. Both have near-unwavering positions regarding the rights of women, the economy, the poor, the criminal.
contraception. Sure, I am staunchly against redefining marriage as anything other than a man and a woman, but: Are these positions enough to qualify me as a Conservative Catholic? I would say no. Conservatism is not an ideal of the Catholic Church. It is inherently anti-Catholic, in that it holds a staunch division of man and his community. It rarely, if ever, assumes the responsibility of charity toward our neighbors. It is a view of “do-itThis invocation of feelings is what Father yourself” and building all things up simply Daniel Pattee has called acting from the will from your own strength. This is not a Cathorather than acting from reason. The passions lic principle, nor is it a virtue. It is pride, a are a very important aspect of the human self-serving adherence to a philosophy of “Iperson, and further, every sentient being. But for-I.” How does this philosophy coincide there is one major difference between man with the Christological virtue of solidarity? and the other animals, namely, being made Am I to abandon that virtue for the sake of with a dignity that only befits the imago Dei. conservatism? Am I to abandon my Catholic Saying that I am not a Conservative Catholic heritage for the sake of something less than will often evoke an emotion that is not befitChristocentric? ting a human person, nor is it befitting of a Catholic. That emotion is contempt. I must admit that I have been often swayed by more liberal beliefs, though now I I never have considered myself a Connecessarily hold them to be against Catholiservative Catholic. Sure, I assist at the forma cism, as such. Their quick and simple soluextraordinaria of the Roman Rite as often as I tions to “solving” poverty by throwing money can. Sure, I am strongly anti-abortion and at it from a governmental standpoint and
providing for the many wishes of people under its charge seems to be a great idea, and one seemingly in unity with the virtue of solidarity. But what of subsidiarity? How does the liberal plan allow for charity when all is given by force of law? How does it aid in reforming the culture in which one lives, rather than subjecting itself to the whims of fallible persons? Just as much as conservatism fails at establishing anything other than an ego-centrism, liberalism reduces all to a collective consciousness, an “I-am-We” mentality. So, what is the Catholic to do? I once called Catholicism the great via media, the middle way between the dangerous philosophies that consistently divide us. I still promote this, but I have never really answered the “why” of it all. There is never an either/or mentality in the Church. We see this often in the heresies of former days. “God is either One or Three-in-One.” “Jesus is either fully human or fully divine.” We as Catholics should immediately see these as heretical, but it is the either/or dichotomy (“Dichotomy” on page 4)
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St. Moses the Black, pray for us!
Letter From the Editor:
Staff:
Dear Gadflies, Business Manager: Alexander Pyles (A.S.P.)
Layout Editor: Emily K. Rolla (E.K.R.)
Copy Editor: Olivia Sielaff (O.S.)
Editor-in-Chief: A.J. Miller (A.J.M.)
You have all had ample time to settle in this semester, but let me still welcome you to (or back to) Franciscan University of Steubenville. Many of you have asked when the first issue would be published and I have not had a solid answer until now. Firstly, please accept my most sincere apology. I have let you all down by missing my first publication deadline. The reasons for this are multiple: I am inexperienced at running a publication; I am currently taking 18 credits and working 3 other jobs; I did not sufficiently advertise The Gadfly thus far this semester and as a result of insufficient advertising, we did not have sufficient submissions to warrant an issue. Please forgive this lapse. This is my first time at the reigns, and I am finding that it is more work than I anticipated. I have adjusted my priorities accordingly and I will devote more time and energy to The Gadfly. Secondly, let me entreat you to write for The Gadfly. We rely almost exclusively on reader submissions, and we have had very few. I understand that few people knew about The Gadfly due to my admittedly poor advertising, but we need your help. Without reader support, we will fade out and become nothing. This publication has stood for 10 years as a place for philosophical discussion on campus. As you can see in this edition, our articles span a broad variety of topics. If you have something to say, find your voice and we will give you a microphone (metaphorically speaking). The press is a wonderful tool for spreading the truth. Allow us to be a platform for you to spread your truth.
** Please note that the views held in the individual articles are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily express the views of the whole staff, nor the University administration. **
Lastly, please understand that, like all ventures undertaken by humans, The Gadfly is not perfect. We sometimes make mistakes. We sometimes anger people. We like to stir the pot, bite the sleeping horse and critique the status quo. This is our mission. In Christ, A.J.M.
Interested in writing for The Gadfly? Email us at notestothegadfly@gmail.com
~Mission Statement~ The Gadfly is an attempt to “bite the sleeping horse” in the spirit of Socrates. It is a student publication whose purpose is to facilitate discussion concerning campus and cultural issues as they pertain to students of Franciscan University. It aims to be a forum for open, well-thought out, and honest discussion towards the end of knowing and loving truth in its most robust sense.
Advisor John R. White, PhD
Cover Art: The Death of Socrates; Jacques-Louis David
(“Real” from page 1”
trates man's very being and should be acted out in everyday life. Being open to reality and learnTrying to suppress those desires is like trying to ing everything there is to know about anything shut up the kid who won't stop asking the ques(and delighting in it) is the driving force of our tion "Why?" reason, of the world we live in. Think of how the Basically, it all comes down to this. Man is child is always open to the real, asking questions intrinsically a being with the desire to know. He about everything, wondering at the littlest thing is constantly craving an answer to everything. and letting its greatness fill his mind. Once What is it that prompts this? Mirandum. When we've found our sense of mirandum again and man takes delight in something, it leads him to begin to make full use of it, we will certainly find want to know more about the thing. Wisdom more satisfaction in the prosaic pace of life. This doesn't begin with disinterest; it begins with intention to penetrate everything gives man the delight. It follows then that it would be against energy to seize the here and now, to take delight our human nature to not be interested in everyin what is right under his nose. In this openness thing. What is there that we shouldn't delight in to reality and wonder is the formula for a peror want to know? I don't just mean the beauties son's journey to the ultimate meaning of reality of nature. I also mean the intricacies of science, living the real, always, intensely, without precluthe simplicity of a smile, the elegance of the husion, without negation or forgetting anything... man person. As G.K. Chesterton said, “I wonder not even that fuzzy caterpillar on the sidewalk or at not wondering.” that brightest star in the night sky. Like the child who always asks "Why?” we should always be open to reality. This attitude of O.S. openness, this eagerness to embrace everything, this fact of being ravenous about reality pene-
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St. Felicity, pray for us!
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The Classics?! “A woman, especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.” ~Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey Breaking Free Dear students, welcome to another semester at Franciscan University. As the semester has begun and people have settled into their rhythms, it has given me a chance to reflect upon my immense gratitude for not living on-campus. I have done it; I have broken free from the prison.
the case. I am the (self-appointed) least chauvinistic student at Franciscan. I believe that the social ills of on-campus living are just as present amongst the male population, or, whichever males have survived the onslaught of hormones radiating forth from the walls of Tommy More.
However, I am sure that there are many wellintentioned students living in the dorms who would take offense at my opening lines. Maybe I am illinformed, maybe I am wrong. Could it possibly be that living on-campus is really like returning to the pre-fallen state of mankind in Eden?! I doubt it. Primarily because of all the excessive floor-length skirt wearing and the gender-ambiguous clothing choices by both men and women on this campus.
The men on this campus, myself included, have just given up (assuming that we even tried at all). We just do not care. We do not care about the way we dress. We do not care about the condescending sexist jokes which we circulate. And lastly, we do not care about being men. Trust me, this is not some kind of male-empowerment speech, the last thing I want to see is more members of a specific male household on-campus running around in skirts pretending to be “manly men.”
Last time I cracked open the Pentateuch and read the story of creation, I believe that both Adam and Eve were fully present to each other in the nude form (Gasp! God forbid that any skin is shown on-campus...). Adam and Eve were present to each other bearing without reservation the fullness of their, respective, masculinity and femininity, and no, I am not talking about any of that Christopher West reinterpretation of the Theology of the Body crap. Obviously I am not encouraging turning Franciscan's Campus into a nudist colony - primarily because the Calvinists lurking around the corners of this school are probably also reading this article and plotting my demise. In fact, let me clarify that I am not even sure what a proper way of expressing one's femininity or masculinity would be in most given situations. “Why then,” you may ask, “are you telling students not to wear whatever they'd like?” Precisely because the way in which we express ourselves via our clothing, should, I believe, be a personal reflection of our own inner personhood. Although I cannot give specifics as to what this would look like, I can be pretty sure that wearing floor-length denim skirts is not fulfilling my basic criterion set forth above.
I think that the students on this campus have become so infatuated with the idea of being different and being “set apart” from the world, that we, as a student body, have forgotten to live, have forgotten to be college students. I am not encouraging perpetual drunkenness or a sharp increase in student pregnancy rates, however, I am asking for you, my fellow students, to loosen up. Relax. Trust me, the world will not end if you receive Communion only fifty-eight minutes after eating... I doubt that God will vengefully strike you down for making a religious joke (I am still here, for now at least). I suppose that if everything else that I have said has fallen upon deaf ears, just take up the Socratic challenge to “know thyself.” Uncover your intentions, find out what makes you tick, and why. Reevaluate your place in the greater cosmos and relax. In the end, we are dust and to dust we shall return, so really, there is not all that much to worry about. I know... I can be so uplifting at times.
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Professor Quote of the Week:
What man and woman do to become mother and father together.
„Til next time, if there is a next time,
However, I can understand how what I have said above can be seen as an affront to only the women at Franciscan University. This is most certainly not ~ Daniel R. Davis
~ Dr. Asci
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St. Ansgar, pray for us!
(“Dichotomy” from front) dichotomy that makes them so. It fails to synthesize and find the unity of the distinctions. The Church is never an organization of either/or, but rather an organization of both/and. “God is both One Divine Nature and Three Persons.” “Jesus is both fully human and fully divine.” Why then do we limit the imagination and practice of Church teaching to the either/or when it is consistently both/and? Both subsidiarity and solidarity are virtues to be lived out, and there is no way to do that except to approach everything from a position of Catholicism first and foremost.
ing morality, morality which should be held as being always social. This is why I give so much credence to the social doctrine of the Church: it is merely a practical extension of the virtues of justice, mercy, and caritas. I hold - and I believe the Church would agree that if one of these is lost, all three fall.
Subsidiarity and solidarity are not simply economic platforms for the conservatives or the liberals to run on: they are practical social virtues that, when lived, are beneficial to the whole of society because they do not stay at the base needs of the passions, but feed the soul itself. There can be no division between Catholicism in that Christ and His Body are As I said before, conservatism is an “I-for-I” One, as St. Athanasius might say. We are both philosophy, whereas liberalism is “I-am-We” individual and communitarian creatures. We and we often see these as dichotic. I am for I, subsist and are held in subsistence. I am not in that I must respect the lowest levels of hufor me alone, but I am consistently for the manity, that is the self (as opposed to houseother. Do you see the problem of dividing hold, community, nation, world, universe). I Catholicism into camps? Qualifying Catholimust guard my soul so as to lead others to cism with “conservative” or “liberal” goes God. In this way, I am for I. Simultaneously I against Catholicism as such, because it is placam also part of the We. I do not come into the ing limitations on what is accomplished in and world alone; from the very moment of my through her work in unity with the Head. conception, there is a community moving and Dividing into camps limits the scope of aiding me. There is my mother, father, and radical and total universality to a selective God working in harmony to bring about my existence. I am always a part of the We in this universality. It reduces the total nature of the Church‟s teaching to subservience to one of its way. The “I-for-I” must be also coupled with natural tendencies, the individual or to the the “I-am-We,” because I am the one practic-
common good. The Church is necessarily above that, and should never be limited by saying “I‟m a Conservative Catholic” or “I‟m a Liberal Catholic.” It makes your Catholicism less than Catholic. It makes it a slave to a master it has never known, rather than unifying yourself to the Divine Master. Conservative and liberal are dirty words and invoke too much emotion, passions which undercut reason. In breeding contemptuous emotions, they are contrary to Love Himself. Make Love the prime concern of your life, and subject your politics to your Catholicism, not vice-versa. I am neither a conservative nor a liberal. I am simply Catholic, and I must model my life on revealing Catholicism by my every work. We must reform the world, and this will not happen by overturning laws or electing certain people into the various political offices. We must build a civilization of love and this first requires that we set aside all contempt. This must take place here and now, and will only happen by leaving those things which corrupt our Catholic identity. Only then will we be able to set the world ablaze in the fire of Divine Love. -Joseph Antoniello President, Students for a Fair Society
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St. Clare of Assisi, pray for us!
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Pop Culture Quote:
Dress classy, and dance cheesy ~Psy
Gun Control: A Wide Stance and Two Hands The violence in July that took place in Aurora, Colo. was the tragic result of one man‟s depravity. After a mass shooting such as Aurora, Virginia Tech in 2007, the shooting in 2010 at the University of Texas, the shooting of Rep. Giffords early last year and the shooting outside the Empire State Building this August, the media (and the political left) is quick to blame guns for gun violence. This argument is absurd. Do spoons cause obesity? Do beer mugs or cars cause drunk driving? When Seung-Hui Cho attacked his classmates at Virginia Tech in 2007, it was him – not the gun – that killed those people. In all of these instances, a gun was used to commit evil. Jansenism would reason that since it can be used to commit evil it is inherently evil, but an enlightened thinker sees the object as neutral and the action as good or evil. Food can be used for the good of nourishing one‟s body, it can also be used for the evil of gluttony. A gun is a useful tool for legitimate good, such as defending yourself or others, or hunting to feed yourself or others. Other legitimate goods that can be attained with firearms include competition (such as the Olympics) and entertainment (such as going trap shooting with my cousins).
My family hunts. We usually hunt deer, and for the last 2 years, our freezer has had more venison than beef in it. Beef is usually around $4 per pound, whereas the venison works out to about $2.50 per pound. When we eat two pounds of meat each week, the money we save adds up quickly, and allows us to more easily meet other financial needs. The venison we get from hunting is also healthier than beef, and is guaranteed free-range, wild-caught.
caliber revolver that would not shoot and a 20ga. shotgun that was so poorly sighted that if you aimed at a milk jug from 10 feet away, you would likely miss. What he bought with the $100? More ammunition for guns of ours that do work. A second amendment advocacy group in Illinois recently turned in $1000 worth of broken handguns and used that money to purchase educational materials to teach children about the safe use of firearms.
Guns are fun to shoot. They hurt sometimes if you aren‟t careful (like the time I cut my hand open because I had it in the way of the mechanism), and they are by no means toys to be played with idly. There are competitions across the nation in shooting, from the US Practical Shooting Association to the Olympic Shooting Team.
As in all things, safety is key. I mentioned before that I cut myself once while shooting. This is not the typical “shooting accident” injury that makes its way into the papers. Many people are injured or killed each year due to shooting accidents, most of them resulting from lack of safety precautions.
Firearms are often the target of crackdowns and police programs such as buy-back programs where police officers offer $50 in cash to anyone who wishes to turn in a firearm, no questions asked. These programs are done with the intent of getting illegally owned handguns out of the hands of criminals. The more frequent outcome is that some little old lady sells her dead husband‟s service weapon for $50 to the police (who typically destroy the weapons), when she easily could have sold it to a collector for more than $1,000. My father recently participated in one of these buy-backs. He sold two firearms: a .22
I go shooting regularly and I am more than happy to introduce someone to the wonderful world of shooting. If you want to learn to shoot safely and comfortably (that depends on your hand size, I guess. I have big hands, therefore a big gun.), give me an email at my school account: Amiller007@student.franciscan.edu. The 007 was random, I swear! Not that I‟m complaining. ~A.J.M.
WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! WRITE! Tell us what y ou th ink by email ing : n otestothegadfl y@gma il .com
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St. Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us!
On the Lord’s Day’s Rest "If you would enter life, keep the commandments" (Mt 19:17).” This the Lord commands us, and this we do: "Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes," we proclaim, "and I will keep it to the end, for thy ordinances are good" (Ps 119:33, 39). One of these commandments, one the Lord gave to His people through Moses, is "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work" (Ex 20:8-10).
time to worship the Lord and praise Him for all His gifts (Pope Bl. John Paul II, Dies Domini #15). This rest from work is not merely a time to "recharge": with the sacred command to refrain from work on the Lord's Day, rest "acquires a sacred value: the faithful are called to rest not only as God rested, but to rest in the Lord" (Dies Domini #16).
plan to work on the Lord's Day unless it is absolutely necessary.
I will say this boldly: profaning the sacred day with work, even theology homework, when not completely necessary, is an evil act. Sin has its conditions; evil has its degrees, but this I can say: it is a sinful act to (with all necessary conditions) perform unIt is a sad thing that today Sunday is necessary work on the Lord's Day. often seen as just "part of the weekend," and Examinations of conscience reflect this alnot as a God-ordained day of sacred rest. The most unanimously. Lord's Day needs to be reclaimed for the Thus I exhort everyone: keep holy the Because of the Lord's Resurrection, the Lord. Not only must we worship on Sunday, Lord's Day by keeping from work. "Six days old Sabbath is superseded by His Resurrecbut we must abstain from unnecessary work you shall labor, and do all your work; but the tion day, Sunday "the first day of the in order to sanctify the entire day to God. seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your Even at Franciscan, this can be a problem. week"(Mt 28:1), now called κυριακη ημερα, God; in it you shall not do any work." Do not We have no problem with the command to dies dominica, "the Lord's day" (Rev 1:10). do homework on the Lord's Day unless it is worship, but refraining from work is a whole Since the holiest day of the week is now on absolutely necessary. different story. Homework being done on Sunday, the old commandment to keep the Sanctify the day, and make it a day of sacred Sabbath is now applied to Sunday. (We know Sundays is a common occurrence on campus. rest. As St. Gregory Palamas, a saint of the all this, but I thought an introduction would Why is this? Eastern Church, wrote in his A New Testabe proper.) Possibly, people may not know of the comment Decalogue: "On the Lord's day, so as to Along with the obligation to worship on mand to rest on the Lord's Day. Possibly, be constantly near to God, abstain from all Sunday, "the foremost holy day of obligation" they may not think of homework as "work" in activities except those which are absolutely (Code of Canon Law, can. 1246 §1), we also the proper sense. Possibly, they may spent necessary and which you have to perform in have a command - that still-applicable comFriday night and Saturday resting and leave order to live…In this way you will sanctify mand given through Moses - to make the their homework to Sunday. To put it bluntly, the Sabbath." Lord's Day a day of rest. Examinations of this is not acceptable. "Six days you shall conscience almost always speak of this comlabor," and the Lord's Day should not be one mand: Have I refrained from "unnecessary of those days. There are some circumstances servile work or just "unnecessary work" in where it is not possible to refrain from all ~Brandon Otto general? This day of rest interrupts the work on Sundays (I myself am in one of those "often oppressive rhythm of work" to remind situations), but we should in general refrain us of our dependence on God, and it gives us from as much as possible. We should not
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