The GadflyBite the sleeping horse.Volume XVIII Issue 1

September 13th, 2013

1

continued on page 6

continued on page 7

Facetted very securely within the idea of what is Franciscan is the notion that the school is a sort of bubble - an island in a vast sea. The school stands, in the minds of those who think of her, as a sort of oasis, a thriving and, in a sense, hidden enclave of the once great and beautiful Catholic Culture of Western Europe (or, if your opinion is less high of the establishment; a tucked-away fortress of overly religious, reactionary, bigots). In both the positive and negative sense this is true. We do act as a safe harbor for many of the great things of Western Culture that the world has largely lost.

True though this may be, we also harbor a very frightened tendency toward isolation. This tendency towards isolation has created a void, a gap, between the University and the community around it. The fact that it seems odd, even incorrect, to say: the community it belongs to, attests to this problem, in a certain sense. While not belonging to from the University (and even in a sense against the statements

The talk of the day, whether its by way of media, academia, or politics, is always focused on reasons why we could not have done otherwise in our lives. We live in a generation fed stories of determinism and abdication of responsibility. We are told the lie that we cant really further ourselves if that means transcending the

circumstances which we have been dealt, that we are just stuck with no way out. You know, sometimes people are dealt a really bad hand, and fortune can never evade them. Albert Camus, in his novel The Stranger, illustrates that even a prisoner has choices. Sure he cannot go anywhere he pleases, but he

decides how he will feel, how he will act, and how he will view the situation at hand. When I was a child my dad would ask me to do things and I would reply many times with: I cant. Yet as Im older I must put away childish things. When it all comes down to it and the situation presents itself before us

Can a City on a Hill Stay That Way?

Freedom or Fate?

By Ryan Adams

Students bask in the sun outside the J.C Photo by Kathryn Carnell

By Joseph Danaher

8!e Gad"y

Five Definitions The Sixth Definition

is a fellow who tries to be somebody by trying to be like everybody, which makes him a nobody.A Dictator is a fellow who does not hesitate to strike you over the head if you refuse to do what he wants you to do.A Leader is a fellow who refuses to be crazy the way everybody else is crazy and tries to be crazy in his own crazy way. is a fellow who tries to get what the other fellow has and to regulate what you should have.A Communitarian is a fellow who refuses to be what the other fellow is and tries to be what he wants him to be.

A Catholic is a Communitarian because he is called to be a light to the world and no one can see without this light. A Catholic is a fellow who looks at the world not because it is evil but because evil is in it.A Catholic is a fellow who gives his hand to the poor amputee because he may need it more than himself.A Catholic is a fellow who lives for the other because God is Love and we partake in that same nature.

So whoever is in Christ is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.

- 2 Corinthians 5:17

By Peter Maurin By Joseph Antoniello

2V. XVIII I. 1

-your new life in a community of seemingly like-minded academicians you may begin to notice that not everyone is so like-minded, and that debate. We are a student run publication that assumes the position of directing a form of communication for students with varying ideolo-gies and points of view. With the aim of increasing intellectual stim-ulation, I encourage all students to add to this dialogue. Never stop questioning and never grow complacent. With a new semester come new promises. Our University is in the process of major changes - beautiful things are to come. New more than excited for the new 25,000+ sq. ft. facility), and a new Gad-email any articles you would like to see published to:

Elias HageQuestion the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, ques-tion the beauty of the air, amply spread around everywhere, question the beauty of the sky, question the serried ranks of the stars, question the sun making the day glorious with its bright beams, question the moon tempering the darkness of the following night with its shining rays, question the animals that move in the watersquestion all these things. -St. Augustine

Elias HageEditor-in-chief

Joseph AntenelloCopy Editor

Sarah CartsLayout Editor

Michael ShermanBusiness Manager

Gadfly Staff2013-2014Letter From The Editor

Write for us!Interested in becoming

a sta! or freelance writer? Emial us:

NotesTo!eGad"y@gmail.com

Add to the campus wide discourse.Email us:

NotesTo!eGad"y@gmail.com

Got A Boiling Idea?

7

!e Gad"y

Fate, continued from page 1we cannot stand before anyone and say, Well, my upbringing... My society... I was tired... Everyone else... Man is without excuse. I understand the sad nature of very real impediments, and I believe that anything and everything should be done to rid the world of such tragic what we do, we can never claim that we couldnt help an action notes, man is thrown into the world condemned to be free. Concerning my acting, fate does not hound me down; I create it. Soren Kierkegaard tells are. We each have a set essence of which we must realize. I must actualize who I am. So it is true that we cannot create all of reality, but we do create the choices we make. I choose whether or not to be who I am or to cop out and say that I wasnt able to or that something was stopping me.

When we come face-to-face with a fork in the road, we must always realize that despite any push we feel in either direction we are accountable for made by unseen forces of culture and society that propel men toward their tragic destinies. who take it upon themselves to realize their potential, who make the most out of what life has us, but the greatest injustice is when we allow ourselves to be kept down by it and accept its tyranny. Thats the thing about life - the future is not written down but is a blank page on which we can make our own novels. We are not just some part of a causal a determined direction without our consent. The world does not just push us, but we can push back. And within there may be fears, desires, and weaknesses, but we also have choices. Our freedom can seem to be a heavy

burden. After all, realizing that I am accountable for each action I take leaves me with no branch to door of possibility is much more beautiful a thing than something to be weary of. When we realize what it offers we realize that the whole world is open to a different tomorrow. We are free to rise to the occasion. It will be hard, but it will be liberating. If there is something I keep doing wrong in life, I can change it. If there is a way in which society errs, we can change it. The world of tomorrow is not inevitable. We are neither destined for triumph nor disaster; we are destined for whatever all of us choose. We can choose to rise out of the ashes from which we may have been thrown into, and we can choose to work toward getting rid of the fuel that started those existence is a world of possibility, and possibility can be a world of greatness if we so choose.

3"e Gad#y

continued on page 5

Over the course of this summer there has been plenty of back and forth over privacy rights being violated (NSA anyone?) or whether our freedom of speech, religion, or bearing arms are slowly are protesting for the right to a living wage. Yet what does this sort of dialogue mean for what does it mean for Catholics Rights historically seemed to have emerged during the 15th century as Enlightenment thinkers started to ponder over the idea of man being his own entity, an entity that carries inner rights within him. Sure, looking farther back there could be more historical analysis of rights and the rest, but thats for a true academic paper not something such as this brief piece. Skipping more digression, there are more persons in the United States that feel entitled to certain freedoms, rights, and things in general. Now, of course I am not saying that all Americans are like this, but it is prevalent in our culture. Yet, despite the encroachments of privacy and

other freedoms we seemingly possess. The American people as a whole have accepted our current regimes policies without as much as a shout. Sure, there are blurbs in the media of how outraged the American people are but in reality what is truly being done? Congress has refused to be true representatives of the people, though thats been the case for over ten years (Id say longer, but Ive only been alive just over two decades). Now this leads me to the real meat of what is being said when we speak of rights. In the Catholic worldview, there is neither faith nor doctrine that speaks of rights as created by God, which begs the question as to why we give right rhetoric so There instead is an incredible debt that we owe to God for having created us at all and giving us gifts that we should use to glorify him. In another way entirely our terms are confused. The the Church use the term rights in their speeches and works, but use it in a different way than we use them here in America

and therefore the two are often confused. The difference can be illustrated between saying the right to life and the right to bear arms. The right to life is an intrinsic quality that exists even before a human person is born. The right to bear arms is one that has been instituted by the government where weapons are not typically needed in civilized society outside of war, but human nature still requires protection against unnecessary aggression within neighborhoods. Yet, in America we have the freedom to carry weapons as per our right (for the most part). This leads into the next piece of this puzzle of what rights do, which is give freedom. We must have freedom to choose between right and wrong to validly make a decision. The crux of freedom is what we do with it. There is this idea in America that freedom is for freedoms own sake, but because of this ambiguous assumption, it has been turned and mutilated into the banner for relativism and the mentality of the 21st century. The ideas of being how you are or being an individual

Do Rights Really Exist? By Alexander Pyles

6City, continued from page 1

V. XVIII I. 1

of the University) the de facto attitude from students towards the city in which they live is rather negative. There is a general fear of Steubenvillethe actual Steubenville, not just Wal-Mart or the drive-in at Taco and say it, but its there behind every concerned should you really be going down there? and will my car be alright lies a deeply entrenched fear that the city is somehow by its nature dangerous. It is true that there is crime in Steubenville, but this is not the cause of the anxiety for those who consider it dangerous. All cities have crime. Where there is man, there is crime; this much is inevitable. In reality the reason for the anxiety can be said to have one of two bases: that Steubenville is foreign or that it is empty. Not knowing your way around and not having people to ask about it are, arguably, entirely comfortable with a place. has become a phobia As student at Franciscan, Steubenville is your home. Not just the campus, but also the whole community. As such, this phobia of the city is not

acceptable, not in a moral sense, but a simply human sense. You cant spend your life afraid of the town you live in, any more than you can spend your life afraid of the lobby of your dorm. Steubenville-phobia, therefore, cannot stand any very nature of such a phobia, one which is built on a lack of to all appearances impossible to rectify. The only means available for us to rectify this situation is simply to go into town. We are afraid because we dont know the area, and there arent people these problems. So, go to Mass in town, get some food downtown. Live in the community you live in, eat and pray with the people. Through this simple human interaction, we can overcome our phobia and in this way, simple human interaction, we have authentic opportunities to spread the Gospel of Christ. Truly, in this we can be a light to the world around us, rather than being a light under a basket, reduced to a

Wha

t do

es M

s. F

rizz

el S

ay?

Tak

e ch

ance

s,

mak

e m

ista

kes,

get

mes

sy!

-

Dr.

Gan

4V. XVIII I. 1

It has not even been a Francis and the media has been scrutinizing every move of the comes at no surprise since Our Lord forewarned us, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves (Mt. 10:16). What has surprised Francis is receiving from his own stepped out onto the balcony of St. mozzetta and the golden papal XVI worked for in the name of tradition had been discarded with weeks that followed the election of Francis, it seemed that all that the traditionalist could talk about was how Francis vestments were too simple, or how the red papal shoes were gone, or how Francis forwent the papal palace. They were even complaining about how Francis wore simple black slacks under his white cassock problem of liturgical extremism must be addressed. I am not saying that when one falls into the error

of traditionalism, then there is a problem. We see the virus of traditionalism plaguing mass media with Catholics that are replacing the Magesterium with blogs and YouTube channels. We see it infect our Catholic brothers and sisters who value personal opinion over the teaching The funny thing in this is that those Catholics that fall into the error of traditionalism have something in common with people like Richard Choice, and certain groups within the LCWR. Like these people, some traditionalists reject the Churchs authority, which is guided by the the foundation of truth. Sounds like there is also a commonality between traditionalists and Recently, the Vatican Congregation for Religious, with restricted a religious community the Franciscans of the Immaculate from celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. This decree made traditionalists around the world

in allowing this to a religious that is comprised of friars, sisters, Yet when one ignores the media bias, the facts can become clearer. The decree on the Franciscans of the Immaculate is not forbidding them to say the extraordinary form forever. Certain communities within the order can request to continue with the extraordinary form. The overlooked reason why the Church is limiting the use of the extraordinary form is because it is causing rupture within the community. If the liturgy is causing rupture in a community, then it is no longer liturgy in the proper sense but is only a shadow of what true liturgy is. You can have the most beautiful liturgy ever, but if there is no communion then the liturgy is actually abused. is not going backwards, but is continuing in the footsteps of his predecessor by reforming the Church, safeguarding beauty in the liturgy, and seeking communion has beautifully put it, It should be apparent that all of us are called not to communicate ourselves, but this existential triad made up of truth, beauty and goodness.

Traditionalism and Pope Francis By Andrew Ouellette

5"e Gad#y

Rights, Continued from page 3or doing whatever you wish are founded on this principle of freedom, which does not dictate what you do with freedom. That may sound like a contradiction to a degree that you must be told what to do with freedom but in a sense it is not. This is on the basis that freedom is a mode that man must act in order to make a proper decision. It is in reality a mere medium in which action can take place. There is this mistake in America that if we lose the medium to do such an action such as losing

the right to bear arms then we are therefore not allowed. We hand over our freedom to senators and other legislators to make these decisions over our rights. Even when they take our rights away, we still give politicians validation by keeping on the media arenas. This may sound inherently anarchistic, but if we are to hold to government we must demand better of politicians or ask for new ones instead of holding to apathy toward our political system.

As American Catholics, it is the reality that we should be coming away from this dialogue of rights and start coming to the realization that gifts are what we are truly given and we have been empowered to use them, no matter the medium that may be stated here or later on. Freedom is never for its own sake, but to serve persons. There is so much we can do with what we have, despite what the government may do to take rights or freedoms away, but in the end we will always have more than enough.

Write!