Fr. Rick's Blog

Today, August 5 The Church celebrates the Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome.
St. Mary Major (”Major” in Latin means “big” or “great”; think for example of the constellation “Ursa Major” “The great or, big,bear”) is “major” or “great” not because of it’s size, but because it is the oldest Church in the west dedicated to the honor of the Mary, the Mother of God.
St. Mary Major sits on Rome’s Esquiline hill (one of the fabled seven hills ancient Rome was built on) It was built not long after the Council of Ephesus (431 A.D.). Among this council’s many accomplishments was the declaration by this Chuch council that Mary was fittingly called “The Mother of God”; in Greek, “Theotokos” (literaly: “the God-bearer”).Catholics are so used to describing Mary as Mother of God that we perhaps have forgotten what a tremendous truth is expressed by these words. Our Protestent brothers and sisters however are frequently puzzled or even scandalized by these words. And non christians are equally put off by the description.
“Mother of God”. Think about those words………”Mother of God”. How can God have a mother? Your mother, my mother, any mother we can think of in our expirience, including even animal mothers obviously are older then their children, your mother has been in existence, has been alive, longer then you have. But God on the judeo-christian understanding of things, is the Supreme Being ; no one and nothing existed before God, who is Himself the One Unique Creator of All. So, how can we say: God has a Mother?
The answer to that question was defined for the Church for all time by the Council of Ephesus.
Very simply it states: In Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity assumed a human nature. Jesus Christ, the God-Man took a human body by His being concieved by the Power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of His Mother Mary. Mary’s Son, Jesus is both God and Man; He is God by nature, the person of Jesus is the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. He is man by virtue of His Incarnation by which He “became Man and “assumed” or “took” on flesh,blood and bone, the whole substance of a human body. And Mary is His Mother and Thus the Mother of God.
One final thought on this feast. This feast day is sometimes known as “Our Lady of the Snows”.
It is called this because of a legend about how the Church of Mary Major came to be built. The story goes that when Pope Sixtus III had decided to build a church in honor of the Mother of God, he was trying to decide where it should be located. A Roman Christian who owned a piece of property on the Esquiline Hill had a dream in which Our Lady appeared to him and told him she wanted him to sell his land on the Esquiline Hill to the Church as the site of this first Church in her honor in Rome. The next day, although it was August and quite warm there was a cover of snow forming the outline of a church on the Esquiline Hill.
The church prompty purchased the land and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today, August 3rd,2010 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Reverend Normand Nadeau.
At the time of his death Fr. Nadeau was Pastor of St. Michael Parish in Brattleboro,Vermont and I was his associate.
I lived and worked with Fr. Norm Nadeau for a little over a year and in that time I came to know, respect and, yes,love him as a brother Priest, a mentor, a Father, and, a co worker and friend.
Fr. Nadeau was warm, gracious and hospitable, he was never happier then while
he was sitting around a table with friends enjoying good food, and good conversation, he was always quick with a joke, had endless stories to share, and unique expressions.
He was generous with his friendship and with Fr. Norm there was always room at the table for another chair.
He loved God’s people and always encouraged his parishioners to bring their gifts of time and talent and treasure to share with God, His Church, and their sisters and brothers.
Fr. Nadeau carried a heavy cross, he was a severe diabetic and had dialysis twice a day on a machine he hooked up himself every day twice a day.
These limitations meant he could not always be as active as he would have liked,nevertheless,Fr. Nadeau never complained, never felt sorry for himself, and regardless of how he felt on a given day, he would devote himself to his God and to his people as best he could.
His courage in the face of his health problems and frequent hospitalizations was astounding to me and to others too who knew him and loved him.
Today, I pray that God has taken this faithful Priest home to his well deserved rest and reward and that when I remember Fr. Norm Nadeau tonight at the altar, he too from his place,I hope and pray, in Glory will remember me and ask God to keep me strong and faithful like he was.
“May the Angels lead you into Paradise, may the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the Holy City, the new and eternal Jerusalem, and where Lazarus is poor no longer, may you find eternal rest.”

It has been quite awhile since I have posted anything, thankyou to everyone who have posted comments, and offered encouragement to this “baby blogger”.

The other day I noticed an article posted on Fox News’s Website about a proposed city ordinance in Memphis,Tennessee that would outlaw discrimination against people on account of their sexual orientation.
If the proposed ordinence becomes law the City of Memphis and anyone doing business with them would be prohibited from discriminating against anyone in hiring, leasing or renting, awarding contracts etc. on account of a persons sexual orientation.
O.K.
So far, so good, the Catholic Church oppossess discrimination,harrasment and any violence or injustice done to anyone for any reason including people with same sex attractions.
If that is as far as this proposed ordinence went, well, I wouldn’t be blogging about it.
But, as they say, the devil is in the details.
It turns out there is some opposition to this proposal in Memphis, and that opposition is coming from a Christian Minister who has voiced his serious concern that this law could and would be used to silence, to marginalize, and to shut down the voices of Christian pastors, individual lay Christians, Christian businesses and Christian institutions, including churches.
Under this law, it is feared, it would be illegal for a church to fire an employee who is gay, or, to refuse to hire someone because of their sexual orientation.
Some will say: but Father, isn’t discrimination wrong? and didn’t you just say the Catholic Church opposses discrimination against everyone ? Yes, discimination is wrong and, yes the Church opposses discrimination against anyone for any reason.
So, what’s going on here?
What’s going on here is the simple fact that the objection of the Christian churches to laws like the one being proposed in Memphis has nothing to do with
discrimination and everything to do with the freedom of the church to proclaim the gospel and to witness to the values of the gospel.
It is not discrimination to tell someone that a same sex attraction is not healthy, is not sanctioned by God, and will not lead to happiness.
It most manifestly IS discrimination

to tell any religious institution or any individual Christian that they Must violate their own cherished religious beliefs or be prosecuted for violating the laws of civil society.
Imagine this scenario,
A Christian clergyman, a Catholic Priest, A Protestant Minister, or, even an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi preaches a sermon stating the Judeo Christian teaching that homosexual (same sex) relationships are wrong, sinful in the eyes of God.
Suppose someone in the Congregation takes offense at these words and decides to file a complaint with the civil authorities.
Can that clergyman expect to be arrested?
Tried for violating the City of Memphis’s anti discrimination ordinance?
Suppose he is convicted?
Then what?
Jail time?
A fine?
What is happening in our society?
An entire class of people is declaired worthy of special legal protection that trumps the rights and liberties of everyone else.
While meanwhile in this same society, utterly defenseless unborn children are given no legal recognition at all, and can be, and are, routinely slaughtered for no other reason then someone, bigger and more powerful has decided that their existence is, for whatever reason inconvienient.

“It can’t happen here”, that’s what we used to think.
The United States of America is a special place, and we need not ever fear the rise of tyranny.

Well, the United States of America IS a special place, but we Americans are as human and frail as the citizens of any other nation. Being human and frail we can easily become careless and forget that Human Liberty is not the norm in this world, it is an astounding exception; We must be vigilent or what President Abraham Lincoln once called “the last, best hope for man on earth” will indeed be lost, if not forever, then at least for a long, long time.
It can, indeed happen here.

This morning’s edition of “The Burlington Free Press” (Sunday,June 13th,2010) includes an article on the official kick off of Lt. Governor Brian Dubie’s campaign for Governor of Vermont.

The article included this:

“……..He is anti-abortion while they are pro-choice………….”

The author of the article, a “Free Press” staff writer is describing how one Dubie supporter draws a distinction between the Lt. Governor and the five Democrats currently vying for their party’s nomination for Governor; one of whom will face Brian Dubie in the general election come November.

What struck me, and not for the first time, was the wording; Brian Dubie is described as “anti-abortion” the five Democratic party candidates are all described as “pro-choice”

Curiously though the author of the piece never goes on to describe the “choice” the five candidates are in favor of.

Of course this no accident.

Abortion has been the law of the land in these United States for well over thirty years now.

Proponents of abortion long ago hit upon the advantage of bending language to appeal to a wide audience.

And, who, could be against “choice”?

And so a debate about human lives was transformed into a debate over “freedom of choice” without any attention at all being focused on the question of what that choice actually is.

The choice to kill an innocent human being.

“Choice” is not some nebulous entity floating around in the ether; a choice is always a choice for or against something.

That something might be as trivial as what flavor of ice cream one likes.

Or,

it might be as consequential as the “choice” to allow an innocent human being to live or be killed.

Abortion is the leading moral issue of our times, and has been ever since Roe v. Wade.

Is it too much to ask the media to have the professional pride (to say nothing of simple human decency) to frame the question accurately and have the courage and honesty to at least raise the question of those who claim the mantle “pro choice” : “pro what choice”?

Of all our Civic holidays Memorial Day it seems to me has a specificly Catholic feel to it. Even though it is not a specificly Catholic, or even religious celebration.
Although,sadly, for many Americans Memorial Day marks the “unofficial” start to summer vacation (even though most schools still have several weeks more before the end of the school year),Memorial day is not about picnics, trips to the beach, cookouts and sales on everything from cars and appliances to home and garden supplies. It is however about something that makes all these other things possible. Memorial Day is about heroes. The countless numbers of men and women who in the almost 234 years of our county’s existence gave their lives,(Abraham Lincoln called it “the last full measure of devotion”) that we, and countless millions of others around the globe, might be free.
On Memorial day we remember them all and we give thanks.
To remember, to give thanks are both deeply religious impulses.
“Do this……..” says Jesus, “in memory of me……….”
At every celebration of Holy Mass at the Consecration we remember what Jesus did…..and in that remembering we are caught up in that act of self sacrificing love we call ‘”eucharist” a word that means “thanksgiving”.
Memorial day is, or it ought to be, at least part of it ought to be; a solemn day of remembrence and gratitude recalling the price paid by so many that we might live as free citizens of a free land.
So, please, enjoy your Memorial Day 2010, go to the beach, have a picnic or a barbecue,take in a parade.
But sometime this weekend take a few minutes to remember and whisper a prayer of thanks to God that in His love He raised up selfless men and women who at great personal cost defended His great gift of freedom.
“Greater love then this no man has,to lay down ones life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).
Also this Monday, Memorial Day, May 31st I will celebrate Mass at St. Thomas Range Road Cemetery at 9:00 a.m..
This Mass is offered for all our Country’s war dead. In case of rain Mass will be in the Church.

Christian faith is centered on two Great Mysteries.
I mean here the word “mystery” in the sense of “religious mystery”.
Not a mystery in the sense of a who done it, like an episode of “Murder She Wrote” or an Agatha Christie or Hardy Boys story.
Not a mystery in the sense of a problem or puzzel to be solved.
No.
A religious mystery is a reality, a truth of such depth and richness that it can never be exhausted.
The two central mysteries of the Christian faith are:

The Mystery of the Holy Trinity

and.

The Mystery of the Incarnation of The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.

Christianity simply makes no sense without these two astounding Truths.

This weekend we celebrate Trinity Sunday which is a celebration of the inner life of God as He is in Himself.

A mystery, a truth so intimate, so profound, that we could never know it had God Himself not revealed it to us.

That the God we worship and adore lives  a communion of love among three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three Persons sharing one nature, not three gods, but one God in Three Persons.

We speak here of a mystery almost beyond our ability to comprehend.

Almost.

Catholic faith affirms that by the light of human reason alone, unaided by faith human beings can come to the truth that God exists.

But, without faith we could not know very much about who God is, for that we need revelation,we need God Himself to tell us about Himself.

There are in creation three kinds of Persons,

Divine Persons

Angelic Persons and, of course,

Human Persons.

All persons are, to use the the classical definition from Greek Philosophy,

“Individual substances of a rational nature”

All persons are also mysterious.

Even in relationships among Human Persons we come to know each other gradually, and certain things about any person remain hidden,unknown to others unless or until we choose to reveal them.

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is like this. Only infinitly more so.

Had Jesus not revealed to us this astounding glimpse into the inner life of God as He is in Himself we would simply never know this.

That God chose to reveal this to us tells us something of the esteem and respect God has for us.

That He would share with us this intimate glimpse into the mystery at the heart of God Himself tells us also something simply wonderful: That at the very core of the ultimate source of reality is Communion, Family, Relationship.

Human beings are called to live forever in a communion of fellowship of life and, of love in union forever with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In his first Letter to the Corinthians (chapter 2;vs.10).
The Apostle St. Paul writes,”……For the Spirit scrutinizes everything,even the depths of God…………”

And yet……………..

There is nothing more mysterious,more hidden in the “depths of God” then the mystery of Human freedom,(by which I mean the mystery of free will).
The mystery of God’s providence,(by which I mean God’s ongoing care for the world, the unfolding of His will,of His plan for the world and all of us in the world.)
And how these two mysterious realities work together.
To us, from our limited,finite,perspective free will and God’s Providence (what perhaps we might call “God’s Free Will” ) seem to cancel each other out.
They can’t both be true…….Or can they?
The incomparable St. Augustine is said to have stated that the three virtues most neccesary for a Christian are 1.)Humility.
2.) Humility.
And, 3.), You guessed it: Humility!
In other words,we are not God, not even close.
Nor do we have His wisdom nor even His perspective.
A healthy dose of humility is essential especially when we are plumping at these depths into the whys and hows of “the depths of God”

But having said that I also have to note that no less an intellectual giant of the faith then St. Thomas Aquinas noted that of all the objections raised to Christian faith, none was more serious, more pressing, then the problem of the existence of evil and how Christian faith reconciles the existence of God whom we say is all poweful and all good with the existence of evil.
If God is all powerful, if He is all good, then why is there evil in the world?
In seeking an answer to this question believers as well as unbelievers can become befuddled.
Some have said the answer lies in us facing the terrible truth……….That God, they say, is not good,but cruel, arbitrary,a cosmic tyrant.

Others say that God might indeed be benevolent but He is not almighty,he is not, in fact the God of Biblical revelation, but rather more like the pagan gods of the Greco-Roman world,some of them could at times,indeed be very noble, very beneficent,kind,good and just. And they could also be, cruel, capricious and petty, as flawed as the men and women who worshipped them.

And still others, of course maintain that God is not at all………..That He doesn’t exist. That He is a figment of our imaginations, the product of the well nigh infinite human capacity for wishful thinking and the craving for security.

In response belivers in God revealed in the Judeo-Christian scriptures offer their own witness,pointing to the witness of scripture itself, the witness of the Judeo Christian tradition, the Church, the witness of the Jewish people, the witness of so many Protestant believers;and,yes, even the witness of Islam (I speak of it’s non Jihadist expression, I am fully aware that in many important respects even a more moderate Islamic theology diverges in many fundamental ways from the Judeo-Christian understanding of God and His revelation- but that is a post for another day!).

And, in the end, we are back to good St. Augustine and his sage recommendation to cultivate humility.

I am currently reading a wonderful book “No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers” written by Michael Novak .

As I understand him anyway, the premise of this excellent book is that believers and unbelievers have more in common then I ever suspected.

All of us, believers and unbelievers, the fanatics and the indifferent alike have to confront the conundrum of freedom, of  providence,of choices and consequences and the awful, (as in Filled with Awe) reality that, sometimes, often, in fact, God seems very far away.

I have not finished this book yet, and it’s not a book I would recommend for an afternoon at the beach, but I want to conclude this post with the following quotes: “………In real life,what we see seems sometimes ugly. We do not understand how mad the world then appears.We protest against evils that cause us revulsion. Yet, no matter what we do,welcome themor hate them, the facts remain the same. To a world of fact,where “randomness rules”, unbelievers and believers must in the end submit. At this point, the unbeliever submits to randomness, while the believer submits to the unscrutable will of the Creator. Both must submit.” (pg. 119)

And then there is this: “The fundamental choice the Creator had to make is either to make this universe habitable for human freedom and to make human beings free, or to restrict the freedom of humans solely to producing happy outcomes. In other words, all lunches would be free. As long as He allowed humans to be free, He had to allow for unintended consequences as well as for cold blooded,deliberate evil acts. As long as He made humans free, He had to recognize in humans their own personal responsibility…….” (pg. 118).

I began this post by quoting from St. Paul on the “depths of God”; I close with another quote from the Apostle to the Gentiles:  “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgements and how unsearchable His ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor? Or who has given Him anything that he made be repaid? For from Him  and through Him  and for Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:33-36).

Back in April I posted a blog entry entitled “First Things First” A reflection on some first principles of the Moral order that once were widely known and accepted throughout Western society and culture, and, indeed, throughout all human societies and cultures. I noted that much of our current confusion can be traced to the fact that we have lost sight of many of these first principles.

This past weekend marked the 50th anniversary of  the introduction of the Birth Control Pill (”The Pill”) into American society.

The changes wrought by that event have been dramatic, far reaching, and tragic for our culture.

To cite only three:  More then one out of every three babies born in the United States today is born to an unmarried mother.

One out of every four pregnancies ends in an abortion.

And more then one out of  two marriges ends in divorce.

That’s quite a legacy for something that was suppossed to bring about an end to unwanted pregnancies, strengthen marriages and liberate women to be more equal partners with men!

“Humanae Vitae” Pope Paul VIs’ Encyclical Letter of 1968 upheld the Church’s longstanding opposition to artificial contraception.

This Encyclical Letter widely denounced at the time was the subject of a well coordinated campaign of dissent by some U.S. and European Theologians, no doubt a leading reason why Church teaching on the immorality of artificial contraception is so poorly understood by Catholics today.

Among the many fruits of the Pontificate of Pope John-Paul II is his outstanding contribution to developing and articulating in a compelling way the long held wisdom of  Catholic teaching on the mystery,meaning and purpose of human sexuality and the gift of fertility.

What has  become known as “The Theology of the Body”, Pope John-Paul II  developed his powerful vision of the true meaning of human sexuality in a whole series of talks given over several years during  his Wednesday General Audiences . Derived from his meditations and reflection on the Sacred Scriptures,especially the account of the creation in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis.

Pope John Paul sees profound meaning in the fact that human beings are “embodied spirits”; That is to say, human persons are created with both an immortal soul and a physical body. The soul is a spiritual reality, our bodies, are, of course, physical. The fact too that human persons are sexual is no accident for the Pope. No, there is profound meaning in the fact that “God created them male and female”.

Our bodies are not something extraneous to ourselves, something ‘extra”, no, we sense the world around us with and through our bodies, and we express ourselves using our bodies.

Among the ways our bodies show  and express what we think and feel and do, among the most mysterious and wonderful is in the love of spouses for each other.

Expressed in the conjugal act of sexual intercourse, the literal coming together of the bodies of a husband and wife is ment to reflect the total giving of the spouses to each other in mutual love holding nothing back.

Seen in this light, the Pope reflects, it is easy to see how the act of artificial contraception makes of this act of mutual love a lie.

Contraception, in effect, results in the spouses saying to one another, “I love you and offer you everything I have and am, except my fertility, and I joyfully accept and recieve everything from you, my spouse, except your fertility”.

Pope Paul VI in “Humane Vitae” wrote how each and every coming together of spouses in the conjugal act (intercourse) has both a unitive meaning (i.e. it is an expression and an actualization of the unity of the two persons) and a procreative meaning (i.e. it is, or should be, open to, and receptive to the possibility of generating a new human life). Put another way, any act of intercourse that is not open to the possibility of a new human life being generated; or that is deliberately closed off from that possibility through contraception, renders what is suppossed to be a sacred act of mutual selfgiving a lie.

The 50th anniversary of the introduction of “The Pill” which has done (along with its’ various cousins) so much damage to women, to marriage, to children and families and to our society in general seems an opportune time to take another look at the wisdom of substituting God’s plan and intentions for marriage with technological interventions with their false promises of security.

By way of sharpest contrast: the Church promotes and urges married couples to practice Natural Family Planning (N.F.P.) which makes use of a woman’s natural menstrual cycle to aid spouses in their decisions on when to try to have a child. N.F.P. facilitates communication between spouses; unlike the pill or other artificial means of contraception which isolates (and too often alianates) husbands and wives from each other by privatizing or individualizing what should be a shared moment of great intimacy.

Dr. Smith points out: “Couples who use natural family planning almost never divorce; the divorce rate at tops is, we think, around 4%”.

In light of these facts, who is the more foolish;  The Church for not changing a teaching that almost guarantees happiness or a culture that is pushing an agenda that almost guarantees  misery?”

A very good question. 

Some of the statistics and the quotes from Dr. Janet Smith are taken from an article that originally appeared on-line at “EWTN News” May 7th,2010.

First, I need to apologize for not posting anything for over a week now. I am still getting used to this whole blogging thing.
I have had a number of responses from parishioners to my earlier posts and I thank you all for your encouragement and kind words.

Last Saturday night we all had yet another reminder that we live in a dangerous world.
If we have not suffered another horrific terrorist attack like on September 11th,2001 it has not been for lack of trying by our enemies.
The grace of God, and the vigilence of law enforcement, the American military, Homeland Security, the F.B.I. and ordinary American citizens have kept us safe, but, as more then one person has observed, the terrorists have to be “lucky” just once, the defenders of the Republic have to be “lucky” every time.
Surely God Himself was there in Times Square Saturday night, surely it was His providential care that kept that bomb from exploding with lethal results for hundreds or thousands of innocent people.
Some are saying that Mr. Faisal Shahzad is an inept bungler………Well, I don’t know about that…..If he is, thank God, if there is one place I would appreciate incompetence; it’s in terrorists who can’t set off a bomb!
But, I think we all should take Faisal Shazhad at his word: He ment what he said, he was determined to set off a bomb in a crowded place intending to kill as many people as he could. That he failed is due first and formost to the goodness of God and the untiring vigilence of American security agencies,police and ordinary people who keep their eyes and ears open and who follow the simple but urgent axiom “if you see something, tell someone” and for that we should all be grateful!

Stem Cell Research, Same Sex “Marriage” (I’ll explain the quotes below) , Abortion, Euthanasia, Divorce, Contraception, Birth Control, it’s easy for Catholics to become confused, bogged down by debates waged by passionate folks using highly charged words like “choice”,”love” “freedom”; who would want to appear to be against any of these cherished values?
No one.
So, too many Catholics, and indeed, too many Christians, too many Americans of good will, of other religious traditions, or no religious tradition at all, say nothing.
Even worse, anxious not to appear “intolerant” even the best of us can be takin in by the rhetoric of so many “progressive” movers and shakers in our society and communities.
Caught up in the business of everyday life, caught up too by the things going on in our own lives and the lives of those near and dear to us, who has time to think out these complex “hot button” issues?
Besides that, often enough the powerful interests who command the hights of American culture in Academia, the Media, Hollywood, and the Political and Special Interest elites push their progresive agenda with passion and zeal, quick to label anyone with a different take on their agenda a religious zealot, a bigot, or just plain old “mean spirited” and, as I said above, who wants to put up with that?
Well, alot of the confusion can be dispelled when we recall a few very simple first principles.
Once upon a time, and not all that long ago either, there was near universal agreement on these “first principals”
#1. It is never right to deliberately take the life of an innocent human being. Whether that human being is an unborn baby in his/her mother’s womb, a frail,elderly person in a nusing home, a person dying of cancer or AIDS;
A Mentally Ill patient depressed and despondent. Whoever they are and whereever they may be, they are first and foremost and always Human beings made in the image and likeness of God, and they may not be killed at the whim, for the convienience of anyone.If we remember this foundational truth, then all the angry rhetoric about “choice” about “rights” about “freedom” is seen for what it really is, euphemisims behind which the powerful seek to hide so that they can continue to oppress the weak and the vulnerable.
But what about the push for same sex “marriage”?
Isn’t that just about protecting people who want to “love” who they want?
Well, not really.
Here is another of those foundational truths: “Marriage” is not a human invention, it was created by God the creator who endowed it with its own structure and nature and purpose. And that structure and nature and purpose is not subject to amendment by any human being, by any human structure, or any human power, be that power the Congress of the United States, The Supreme Court of the State of Vermont or any human institution.
Same sex marriage is not “Marriage” for the same reason a cocker spaniel is not an oak tree.
Cocker spaniels and oak trees are completely different types of things with completely different natures.
To force civil society to affirm by force of law that a relationship between two people of the same gender is the legal and moral and ethical equivelent of the marriage of one man and one woman is as deranged as would be an effort to make the same assertion in law about cocker spaniels and oak trees.
But, again, if we loose sight of those foundational first principals, then it is too easy to loose our way in the moral and ethical fogs that enshroud us.