“God has brought you here to stretch you.” –Dr. Miletic

So today at around 5:00 I went back to school. 

A big box, delivered via UPS, was waiting for me in my apartment office. Inside was one spiral bound course text and two binders–one for Principles of Biblical Study I and one for Sacraments. I opened the box rather ceremoniously, with scissors, as opposed to my usual grab and tear open method. 

I read the course materials, the Distance Learning Guidelines and ‘how to submit assignments.” Biblical studies has no exams, just papers, which increase in the difficulty (the first was really just a worksheet!), culminating in a 10 page exegesis paper, which is basically a close reading of a Biblical text. Sacraments, on the other hand, has no papers, just a midterm and a final. I had to order the documents of Vatican II, which I should get on Saturday, so I decided to start Biblical Studies (211/511) today. 

I found a blue legal pad left over from my days at Cap, grabbed a mechanical pencil, and put the CD into my DVD player. Perched on my rocking chair I selected the first lecture. 

It was great. I felt like I was right in the classroom with them, on the first day of some balmy August. The professor, Dr. Miletic, is 1) VERY easy to understand , 2) wickedly intelligent and 3) very funny. My hand was flying over the notepad as I took notes. It was incredibly exciting, invigorating, astounding. 

He talked about the usual things–class expectations, the syllabus, the texts for the class. Then, since the class focuses on the Old Testament (OT), he talked about how it came into being–first in Hebrew, then translated into Greek by Alexander the Great around 330 AD. He discussed how the OT and the NT are intertwined, how you cannot really know one without the other. We even talked about the hypostatic union! (which is the idea that Jesus is both God and Man–he is an invisible, eternal person who also took on a finite human nature).  He was great. All the ideas flowed seamlessly into another. And then the class was over.

The assignments were: start the worksheet (asssingment 1–I actually finished it, go me!) Read 40 paragraphs of the CCC on Sacred Scripture (101-141), and then read Dr. Miletic’s handout on what we just read in the CCC (very helpful). Then, start reading Genesis. 

OK so I got through the first three things. CCC, handout, worksheet. Done. Filed the worksheet to be mailed in when it was due. 

Then I picked up my Bible. For my MA I’m using the Ignatius version since I love the RSV translation. I thought, well, I’ll just read until I get bored. Genesis is 50 chapters and I have weeks to read it. (We have a long time with Genesis. Then we’re reading like a book of the Bible every two days.) 

I picked up the pencil and notepad again and began to read. I read the whole thing, noting typology (where Jesus is prefigured in the NT), the covenant, and made a rough timeline–who was born when, who married who, when Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt. Which of Jacob’s wives had which of his 13 kids. 

When I was finished I wanted to go on to Exodus–much like I wanted to go on to the next lecture. But I didn’t. I typed up my notes (might come in handy later) and checked off the assignments. 

Tomorrow I’ve got my first Sacraments lecture. There’s no actual assigned reading, so I’m not quite sure how this will work, but whatever. We’ll find out. 

On the tentative schedule I made, I will be done with both these classes in mid-September. I have six months from the date the courses are mailed to finish, so my completion date was early-to-mid November. I LOVE being ahead! Basically I set it up like so: MWF–Sacraments; T Th–Biblical Studies. Now if Sacraments ends up being longer than 50 minutes, I’ll switch, but I think this will work well. Biblical Studies has a ton of reading with it, so I’ll probably need more time to get that all done as I get to things like “Numbers/Deuteronomy in two days”.

What do you mean self-control is something we should practice? (My emphases)

Pope Benedict XVI: condoms make Aids crisis worse

Pope Benedict XVI said that the distribution of condoms ‘aggravates’ the Aids crisis, as he embarked on his first trip to Africa.

By Nick Squires in Rome
Last Updated: 7:58PM GMT 17 Mar 2009

Pope Benedict XVI gestures from the airplane before leaving from Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport for a trip to Africa that includes stops in Cameroon and Angola Photo: AP

While en route from Rome to his first stop, Cameroon, the Pope said that the condition was “a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.”

Speaking on board his official plane, the pontiff insisted that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against Aids, advocating sexual abstinence and fidelity within marriage as a way of fighting the disease.

During the seven-day visit, which will take Benedict to Cameroon and Angola, he said he would address the continent’s “grave problems and painful wounds”.

Africa is crucial to the Vatican because of its growing number of believers. Within 15 years around a sixth of the world’s Catholics, or 230 million people, are expected to be African. The continent also produces a large proportion of the world’s Catholic priests.

But it also presents huge challenges for the Pope, including tension with Islam in some countries, competition from evangelical churches and opposition to the Church’s ban on condoms in countries where Aids is rife.

Pope Benedict, who has mostly confined his travels to Western countries during his four-year papacy, will first visit Cameroon during his week-long trip, and then Angola.

His only previous visit to Africa was to Kinshasa in 1987 when he was a cardinal.

He will appeal to rich countries which are grappling with the global financial crisis not to forget Africa’s acute needs.

An estimated 800 million Africans suffer from chronic hunger and the crisis is already affecting the level of remittances sent from abroad as African immigrants in Europe lose their jobs.

Although he will only visit two of Africa’s more than 50 countries, he hopes that his visit will “embrace the entire African continent”, he said on Sunday during his weekly blessing in St Peter’s Square in Rome.

He referred to Africa’s “ancient cultures and its difficult path of development and reconciliation, its grave problems, painful wounds and enormous potential and hopes”,

He is expected to meet African bishops, Muslim imams, politicians and women’s advocacy groups.

The six-day tour will be the 81-year-old pontiff’s 11th foreign trip.

He is scheduled to visit Israel and Jordan in May.

(from The Telegraph)

Oh, my goodness. AIDS is not a reason to disband Church doctrine! Whatever will the Pope say next?

But wait…there’s more! (As the Count on Sesame street says…)

Here are two awesome interviews with Archbishop Chaput of Denver, who is a hero of mine. If any American could be Pope, I’d pick him (well, and my cousin, naturally.). 

The first is from NRO

Some choice bits (but you really need to read the whole thing) (emphasis mine):

LOPEZ: What should it mean when someone says, “I’m Catholic.”

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: It should mean that we love Jesus Christ as our redeemer, love the Catholic Church as our mother, and give our hearts to what she teaches, because she teaches in Christ’s name.

LOPEZ: What should it mean when I’m “voting Catholic?”

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: We should see ourselves as Catholic first — not white or black, or young or old. or Democrat or Republican, or labor militant or business owner, but Catholic firstas the main way we identify ourselves. Our faith should shape our lives, including our political choices. Of course, that demands that we actually study and deepen our Catholic faith. The Catholic faith isn’t a set of clothes that we can tailor to a personal fit. We don’t “invent” our faith, and we don’t “own” it. If we really want to be Catholic, then we’ll live by Catholic teaching. Otherwise we’re just fooling ourselves and abusing the belief of other Catholics who really do try to practice what the Church teaches.

And: (emphases mine)

LOPEZ: Whenever I write about Catholics and abortion, I am immediately asked, “What about war? What about the death penalty?” What about them? Can a Catholic vote for Senator “Surge”? We have killed people in Iraq, after all.

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: I’ve written and spoken against the death penalty for more than 30 years. And along with most other American bishops, I opposed our intervention in Iraq. But these issues are different in kind, not merely degree, from the violence involved in abortion. Anyone rooted in Scripture and Catholic tradition will understand the distinction if he or she reasons honestly. Genocide, euthanasia, abortion, and deliberately targeting civilians in war — these things are always grievously wrong. But in Catholic thought, war and capital punishment can be morally legitimate under certain carefully defined circumstances. Abortion is never morally justified. 

Last: 

LOPEZ: If there is one single point that every Catholic reader of your book could take away from it and pray about and make their own, what would you pray it be?

ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: Again: Don’t lie. If we say we’re Catholic, we need to back it up with proof. Our faith needs to be the North Star of our lives. Our behavior needs to match our words, including in our political choices.

Here’s the Archbishop’s interview with radio host (and Catholic) Hugh Hewitt

And, of course, here’s the book: Render Unto Caesar. 

…from the third.
I’m talking about St. Augustine and his Confessions.
Most people that are into classical/theological lit have heard of it. A few of us have read it in its entirety. I tried once, and failed miserably. I just didn’t get it. What was everyone raving about?
Now I know. It’s been two years since I last tried to read it, and now, armed with a new translation, I have discovered the incredible wisdom and richness of Augustinian prose.
Augustine is far from a ivory-tower saint. This is a guy who dabbled with women (having a child with one of them), calling himself a “slave of lust”, while being engaged to a girl (and I do mean girl; he had to wait until she was 12 to marry her. He was over 20 by this time.). He stole, caroused, got drunk, and pursued many other activities familiar to twenty-first century frat boys. His mother, St. Monica, certainly earned her “St.” with him as a son. He left Hippo to go to Rome and Milan, teaching rhetoric to support his high living lifestyle.
Yet, somehow, God found him (in no small matter due to his mother’s unceasing prayers), he became a Christian, and, eventually, Bishop of Hippo (in North Africa).

I haven’t finished this re-through yet, but I am enthralled. This should be required reading. (Nerdy book note: PLEASE get the translation I linked to above, if you’re going to read this. It is readable, elegant and VASTLY superior to the other one I tried, which I believe was published by Signet.)

Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new; late have I loved you. And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called out and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put flight to by blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours. (Book X, 38)

Good stuff:  (emphases are his)

The fair-minded nearly ubiquitous former Rome correspondent for the ultra-lefty NCR, Mr. John L Allen, Jr., has led his weekly blurb with a clear and correct statement:

Without a doubt, the push for robust assertion of traditional Catholic identity is the most consequential mega-trend in the life of the church today, and it is also the core of Benedict XVI’s agenda as pope. Emboldened by the election of John Paul II in 1978, the identity wave hit the arena of liturgy first, then went on to engulf Catholic education, Catholic media, priestly identity and formation, religious orders, and virtually every other sphere of ecclesiastical life.

Yes!

As I have been saying until you readers are no doubt hearing it repeated in your heads at night, Pope Benedict has a plan, a “Marshall Plan” for the Church, focusing especially on reinvigorating Catholic identity.  The liturgy is the tip of the spear.

Change the liturgy, you change everything else.

Note also that Allen brings in the point of priestly identity.  Clearly this is what Summorum Pontificum is aiming at.  The Motu Proprio is about priestly identity as much as it is about anything else.

If Catholics do not recover and strengthen a clear Catholic identity, one that is coherent in teaching and practice and in continuity with our past, then we cannot make the contribution the Lord commands her to give to the world.

In the ever secularizing, relativizing world, solid clear Catholics are being marginalized, while the squishy amorphous sort are being allowed to stick around as tokens in public discourse.

We need renewal of our identity so that we can understand well who we are and live our lives in keeping with that identity (this is the ad intra dimension).  Only in this way can we have something vital and effective to contribute to the world at large (this is the ad extra dimension).

Allen got it exactly right.

(a non-liturgical note: when I saw “squishy” my first thought was “I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy.”

If you don’t get that, you don’t have kids. Or don’t go out that often. )

From Magnificat (with some of my own additions):

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was born on August 28, 1774, in New york City, to a wealth and distinguished Episcopalian family. She was baptized in the Episcopal faith and was a faithful adherent to the Episcopal Church of England. Her mother died when she was a child and her father was a physician. In 1794, Elizabeth married businessman William Seton, and they raised five children in New York City. Her husband suffered a catastrophic business failure which forced the family to sell their home and depend on the kindness of relatives. William contracted tuberculosis and Elizabeth and Anna, one of their daughters, accompanied him to Leghorn, Italy, where he sought a cure. Sadly, he died there, and Elizabeth and Anna went to live for a time with the Felicci family, wealthy Italians who were friends of William’s. Impressed by their deep faith, Elizabeth decided to convert to Catholicsm upon her return to America. She made her professsion of faith in 1805, much to the displeasure of her family. At the behest of Bishop John Carroll, Elizabeth established the her Catholic school in Balitmore in 1808, which was open to all students regardless of their family’s ability in pay. In 1809 she founded the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Her two boys were educated at Mount St. Mary’s and joined the American navy. Elizabeth lost two of her daughters, Anna and Rebecca, to tuberculosis. Her daughter Katherine survived. Her community spread to New York state, and as far as St. Louis, before she died on January 4, 1821. She was declared a Saint (the first American-born) by Pope Paul VI on September 14, 1975.

From St. Elizabeth’s writings:

O Father, the first rule of our dear Saviour’s life was to do your will. Let his will of the present moment be the first rule of our daily life and work, with no other desire but for its most full and complete accomplishment. Help us to follow it faithfully, so that doing what you wish we will be pleasing to you.

Lord Jesus, who was born for us in a stable, lived for us a life of pain and sorrow and died for us upon the cross; say for us in the hour of death, “Father, forgive,” and to your Mother, “behold your child.” Say to us, “This day you shall be with me in paradise.” Dear Saviour, leave us not, forsake us not. We thirst for you, Fountain of Living Water. Our days pass quickly along; soon all will be consummated for us. To your hands, we commend our spirits, not and forever. Amen.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is one of my favorite saints. I’ve seen the movie A Time for Miracles many times, and it helps butress my own feeling of vocation. In my ideal life, I would like to be her–married to a man she loved, children, a nun, a foundress, a teacher, etc. Her life was hard, I know. But still, she encompassed every part of a woman’s life in a truly unique way.

In grade school my parents took us to Emmitsburg to see St. Elizabeth’s home and school. You can still see the original school house she and the sisters used. St. Elizabeth is buried on the property, along with her children. It is a beautiful and peaceful place.

Some links:

On her life

Seton shrine in NYC (lower Manhattan)

The Emmitsburg Shrine (National shrine)

Today’s gospel was perfect for my state of mind lately; Jesus spoke about not worrying what to say when you are questioned about your faith, because he will give you the words that no one can refute. He promised that “not a hair on [our] head[s]” will be lost. He takes such good care of us–I think that is something that we often forget.

We think that if God loved us, then He’d sort of “leave us alone”; that is, we’d have enough money, perfect health, etc., etc. Everything would be easy. But if you look at the lives of those God and Jesus loved, it was the exact opposite. Mary was told at Jesus’ presentation that a sword would pierce her heart. John, the “beloved disciple”, died in exile on Patmos. Peter and some of the other apostles were crucified. How many saints had illness, the “dark night”, doubt, pain, fear? Almost all of them. Look at Jesus himself, the “beloved Son”–crucified. For love of us. God’s love is, to our human way of thinking,a funny kind of love. But we have to remember that His knowledge is perfect. He wants us to be with Him in Heaven, and if that takes discomfort and pain, etc., then that’s what it takes. And it doesn’t take that for everyone. I’m re-reading St. Teresa of Avila’ s The Interior Castle, and in her discussion of the First Mansion, she discusses this point, saying, “there are different way of being in this castle”; she writes later that “if we start with the false principle of wishing God to follow our will and to lead us in the way we think best, upon what firm foundation can this spiritual edifice rest?” RTusting God is vital. But that doesn’t mean we can’t doubt. Mother Angelica said

Don’t worry if you have doubts. Doubts do not displease God. They are permitted by Him–permitted to bring out the depth of faith within us.

But this was all just one part of the Gospel. The other part, the first part, about not being afraid of what to say because Jesus will give us the words, is what I’ve been dealing with lately. So many people seem to want to blunt God’s truth and what His Church teaches. They want balance. They want other ideas presented. This is not a political arena. There are no other sides in the Catholic Church. There is right, and there is wrong. There is sin, and there is virtue. There is Heaven, there is Hell (well, OK, Purgatory too, but you know what I mean). I know people who want to present sin, heresy, blasphemy (all good old-fashioned words we’re too afraid to use anymore) as “alternatives” or “other ideas” or “balance.” Well, there isn’t balance when we’re talking faith. God will keep us from error, but I don’t want to have my parish end up like some Protestant denominations, who write statements like (and I’m paraphrasing), “abortion is bad, but if you really need to have one, then you should be able to. (Side note: What other sin do we talk about like this? None. We don’t say, “well murder is bad, but if you really need to kill someone, do it.” “Well, stealing is bad, but if you need to..” “adultery is bad, but…” Only abortion. Funny.) NO.

One among the many things I love about Catholicism is its total definitiveness. There is right and wrong. Black and white. This is what is good, and this is what is not. There’s no wishy-washy beating ’round the bush. You know what’s going on, and if you don’t, get thee to your CCC. If you’re Catholic, be Catholic. Believe what we believe hook, line and sinker. Or go find a church that believes what you believe. To pull the name of a blog, “The cafeteria is closed.” No more of this balance talk. We have to talk truth.

how not to do it.

Seen on the sign of the Lutheran Church down the road from my parish:

REFORMATION SUNDAY

LOTS OF SPECIAL MUSIC!

Etc., etc. with times, and a mention of food.

OK, um, wow.

First off, why is there even Reformation Sunday? Yes, I know it’s “technically” the day their denominationw as founded. But basically it’s a slap in the face to Catholics, akin to saying, “boy are we glad we purified our church and separated from all those heretic losers!”   Can you imagine if Catholics celebrated something akin to that? The uproar would be incredible. 500 years after the fact it seems like we’d be sort of past this, right?

When I went to Capital (a technically “Lutheran” school), they always celebrated Reformation Sunday, and it made me think, “how ironic, given that half your student population is Catholic.”  For a religion that preaches love and brotherhood and tolerance and all that good stuff, this doesn’t seem like any of those things.

They went their way. We went ours. Can we move on?
As a side note: do any other Protestant denominations celebrate this? Or is it just the Lutherans?

Side note 2: I know it’s cliche, but seriously, my best friends are  Lutheran. One of them has a brother-in-law who is a Pastor. So it’s not like I don’t know any. And I’m sure that for many of them it’s not an “in your face” kind of thing. But it still bugs me that the denomination continues to have this. If you want to celebrate Martin Luther’s birthday, or whatever, go ahead. But do we need to have “Reformation Sunday”? Please.

Side note– the Assumption (August 15) is celebrated in the Lutheran Liturgical Calendar. Rather ironically, it’s listed as a “lesser festival.” I don’t know a whole lot about Luther, but one of the things I do know is that he kept his devotion to Mary his entire life. So the idea that the Mother of God is relegated to Christmas and a “lesser festival” is ironic.

( A quick web search revealed some Protestant papers trying to debunk the idea that Luther was devoted to Mary in a Catholic sense. The one paper I actually read actually contains several confirmations of Catholic Marian doctrine. So I think that there may be some misunderstandings vis a vis Catholic Mariology here. But I digress.)

Since October is the month of the Rosary, and Oct. 11 is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (followed closely on Oct. 13 by the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, where her messages were focused quite closely on the Rosary and the importance of its recitation), my church has decided to have rosary said after each Mass during the month of October. We also going to try to do this in May.

I have gone to our 10:15 Mass, which is usually the best attended. The first week, I led the recitation, and about 10 people were there. Not too bad. I’m not sure how many were there last week. For this, I don’t think it’s the  quantity of people that’s important. It’s the fact that we’re doing it at all. It was nice to be saying the rosary in a group, and it felt like we were bathing the church in our rhythmic prayers, helping to prepare the sanctuary, as  it were, for the next Mass. We were seated near the tabernacle, which added to the feeling.

I try to say the rosary daily, and normally I say it silently and alone. Saying it communally was, however, something I grew up with; occasionally we would say the family rosary, and Dad was a big fan of saying a decade or so in the car on the way to school or church.  The rosary has permeated my life and it’s an important devotion for me.

On top of saying it after Mass, my faith sharing group (FSG) has also been saying it at the end of our meetings this month.

It has been said that the rosary is “the weapon.” It is one of the most powerful prayers we have. If you don’t say the rosary regularly, or not at all, this would be a good month to consider doing so. Mother Teresa once wrote that when she was having spiritual difficulty, she would pick up her rosary and say it slowly and deliberately, until the pain had passed or lessened. It is a great way to increase meditation and reflect more deeply on the life of Christ and His Mother. It makes us realize that they truly experienced every human emotion, and know what we are going through here on earth.

From KLO on The Corner: (emphases mine)

Md. Mom’s Case Poses Tough Challenges

Wednesday August 1, 2007 4:46 PM

By KRISTEN WYATT

Associated Press Writer

OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) – Investigators trying to fill gaps in a case with daunting legal and forensic issues returned Wednesday to the home of a woman suspected of killing her newborn son and hiding the bodies of three other pre-term infants.

Investigators must determine whether all four bodies found at the home were the offspring of Christy Freeman. Freeman, who also has four living children, has been charged in the death of one newborn found last week wrapped in a bloodied towel under her bathroom sink.

That body was determined to have been at 26-weeks gestation. Investigators still need to figure out how old the others were when they died, when they died, and whether Freeman or someone else was responsible for the deaths.

The timing is critical. If the pre-term infants were too young to be considered viable outside the womb, Freeman can’t be charged with murder. And if they were old enough to live outside the womb, but died before Maryland passed its 2005 fetal homicide law, it may not be a crime even if Freeman caused their deaths.

On Wednesday, four investigators carried black cases into the house. Police spokesman Barry Neeb said that even though investigators had already searched the home, they wanted to do a final sweep for “tying up loose ends.”

“They just want to go back in and make sure they haven’t missed anything,” he said.

Neeb said the search would likely be complete by midday and that Freeman’s four children and her longtime boyfriend, Raymond W. Godman Jr., would be allowed to return Wednesday night. Godman has not been named as a suspect, Neeb said Tuesday.

The 2005 fetal homicide was designed to penalize those who kill a pregnant woman or her viable fetus, but it includes a provision shielding pregnant women from prosecution for actions that result in their own fetus’s death.

The exemption, meant to preserve the right to an abortion, hasn’t been challenged in the courts, said Denise Burke, vice president and legal director of Americans United for Life, a Chicago-based group that seeks common ground on abortion issues.

Cindy Boersma, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, said there is nothing ambiguous about the exemption.

“The only reason the bill passed was because it explicitly contained that exemption,” she said.

State Delegate Susan K. McComas, a Republican who co-sponsored the 2005 bill, said the exemption was added by majority Democrats who feared the bill would restrict a woman’s right to abortion. “We weren’t contemplating a woman doing something to her own fetus,” McComas said.

Prosecutors and police concede it could take months to sort out all the physical evidence and determine what charges, if any, may be appropriate for Freeman if the three sets of older remains found in her home and Winnebago belonged to her.

“It may turn into a war of experts, with the prosecution experts saying the fetus was viable and the defense experts saying the fetus was not viable, or it’s impossible to know whether the fetus was viable,” said Baltimore attorney Andrew D. Levy.

Investigators went through dirt from an overgrown lot next to Freeman’s home shovel by shovel on Tuesday.

“We need to gather as much evidence as we can,” Police Chief Bernadette DiPino. The prosecutor, State’s Attorney Joel Todd, is “going to have a challenging case as it is.”

DiPino also said that a specialist planned to examine Freeman to try to find out how she got bruises on her thighs, abdomen and forearm before she was admitted to a hospital Thursday with heavy bleeding.

Police want to know whether the bruises were accidental, self-inflicted or caused by someone else. They have not ruled out the possibility of more charges.

Todd, the prosecutor, has said little about how he plans to proceed. He told reporters Monday that the state “will have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she did something to cause that baby to be stillborn.”

Freeman professed innocence in a bail hearing Monday but didn’t offer an explanation for the four sets of remains. She was being held without bail Wednesday.

The lawyer who represented her at a bail review hearing is no longer her attorney, and the district court clerk’s office said she did not yet have a new lawyer.

So let me get this straight. We’ve got four “bodies,” “remains”, whatever the article wants to call them. In Plain English–there are four dead babies in this woman’s home. Someone killed them. They’re premature, so the thought would be either someone hurt the mom, causing the pre-term births, or she did it herself. Either way, there are four dead babies. Someone should be punished. But in Maryland (a state, coincidentially, named after the Virgin Mary and founded as a Catholic haven, home to the U.S.’s first Catholic Bishop and Catholic schools…), apparently, you can commit infanticide.