CATHOLIC VIEWS BROADCASTS INC., CHANNEL 19 UHF, www.cvbi.net

OUR FOUNDER FROM OUR FOUNDER FAITH FACTS

Our founder…

Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J., is the founder and owner of Catholic Views Broadcasts, Inc. which operates two Catholic TV stations: Channel 19 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Channel 54 in Chicago, Illinois.

Fr. Baker studied theology at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and then earned his Ph.D. in Theology at Marquette University in Wisconsin. He taught theology for seventeen years at Gonzaga University in Washington.

Since 1971 Fr. Baker has been the editor of the Homiletic & Pastoral Review, a monthly magazine for Catholic clergy. He is the author of Fundamentals of Catholicism and Inside the Bible (both Ignatius Press).

He has appeared on EWTN’s “Mother Angelica Live” and taped a thirteen-part series on the Bible for broadcast on EWTN.

From our founder…

Dear Friends of Family TV 19,

We all get a lift when summer comes, after a long, hard winter, and there are new signs of life all around us—an abundance of flowers and green leaves budding forth on the trees. I always get the feeling at this time of year that it is wonderful to be alive and to be able to enjoy God’s amazing creations that surround us on all sides.

Channel 19 is a Catholic TV station—one of very few in the whole United States. We take our responsibility seriously to bring you the best Catholic programming we can find and produce.

In addition to the programming of EWTN, we also bring you programming of a local nature that you will not find on the regular EWTN network. That is as it should be since we are a community or local broadcasting station.

As a Catholic station we try to keep you informed about Church activities, doctrine, moral teaching, and all things connected with Catholic culture.

The Catholic Church is the greatest and best institution on earth because it was founded by Jesus Christ himself 2000 years ago. It has outlived the Roman Empire and all of its other adversaries, such as Nazism in Germany and Communism in the Soviet Union.

Jesus established the Church to show us how to get to heaven and to give us the means to do it, that is, his grace which comes to us through the Seven Sacraments. We should love and treasure the Church as the spotless Bride of Christ, in spite of the sins, cowardice and betrayal on the part of some of her leaders. Jesus had his Judas and we also have our Judases. We should not be surprised at this since Jesus predicted that it would be so. But the Church herself is animated by the Holy Spirit.

It comes down to prayer, fidelity and the Sacraments. Please pray for us that we will remain faithful and, if you can, help us. We depend on your generosity. God bless you.

Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J., President

August, 2008

Faith Facts…

CHRIST, THE RISING SUN OF JUSTICE

By Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J.

Because the universe, the earth and our whole life belong to God we must spend some time on a regular basis in worshiping him and giving him thanks. Nature itself requires this, as we see plainly manifested in the religious customs of most peoples and cultures.

However, God manifested his precise will in this matter to the Israelites in the Old Testament when he gave Moses his Third Commandment: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day” (Exod. 20:8). To the early Israelites this meant that no work was to be done on the Sabbath or Saturday. By the time of Jesus there were synagogues, so then the people would gather there for prayer and instruction on the holy day. The early Christian Church changed the day of worship from Saturday, the last day of the week, to Sunday, the first day. The principal reasons given in the tradition of the Church for this change are that Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday and also sent down the Holy Spirit on his Church on this day. Another reason given by St. Justin Martyr is that God created the world on this day. Sunday reminds us of Baptism and the new creation which began with our Lord’s Resurrection. Sunday is also called “the Lord’s Day” (Latin: Dominica; see Rev 1:10).

Please note these beautiful words of St. Maxim of Turin:

“We hold the Lord’s Day in reverence and celebrate it solemnly, because on that day our Savior, like the rising sun, shone in the light of his glorious resurrection after conquering the darkness of hell; this day is called Sunday, because Christ, the rising Sun of Justice, fills it with light.”

As the centuries moved on, however, the faith of many grew cool. Thus, from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries Church laws in the matter became more explicit, culminating in legislation for the whole Church that Mass attendance is obligatory every Sunday and holy day for all Catholics who have reached their seventh birthday.

Rarely, in the contemporary Catholic Church, do we hear any reference to the six precepts or commandments of the Church. How many Catholics even know what they are? Certainly they have not been abrogated, though there have been some modifications, such as the rules of fast and abstinence. The very first precept of the Church is: to assist at Mass on all Sundays and holy days of obligation. The six precepts are still binding and are still taught, but it seems that they are now taught separately and not as a group.

Since Vatican II there is a great reluctance on the part of bishops, priests, theologians and teachers to talk about the duties or responsibilities of the faithful in terms of “obligations”, “commandments” and “binding under pain of sin.” These expressions are not used much in our day, but the reality they signify has not changed.

Thus all Catholics over seven years of age who have sufficient use of reason are bound under pain of mortal sin to attend Mass on Sunday if at all possible. Naturally, physical or moral impossibility excuse one from this obligation.

Men and women are free—and faith in Jesus Christ and his Church is a free gift. But Church law is still in force. So all I am saying here is what the official Church has been teaching explicitly since the 13th century: Catholics have a serious obligation in conscience to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation. Religious teachers of all kinds have the corresponding obligation to communicate this truth to their students.