Denver Catholic

2 I CATHOLIC LIFE DECEMBER 11, 2013 I DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER ARCHBISHOP'S COLUMN MOST REV. SAMUEL J. AQUILA Marijuana and Catholic belief Colorado residents are bracing for Jan. 1, 2014, when the shelves of approved dispensaries will be stocked for the first time with recreational marijuana. Because of this change in our state's laws, I have invited Professor Christian Brugger, a moral theologian from St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, to write about the ethical issues involved in the legalization of marijuana. It is important for us to understand the impact this legislation will have on our youth and most especially what studies show concerning the long-term use of marijuana.—Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila Prior to its legalization, morally conscientious people had at least one clear reason for opposing pot smoking: it's against the law (a misdemeanor offense in most states for possessing small amounts). Now that it's legal in Colorado, how should conscientious people assess the situation? This short article will only address a small number of questions associated with pot smoking, questions most relevant as the Jan. 1 deadline approaches. For purposes of space it will not address other questions, such as whether and under what circumstances it is legitimate to use marijuana for therapeutic purposes. First we need clarity on the drug's effects on users. The intoxicating chemical in marijuana is called THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol). It acts on the brain by stimulating the reward system in a way that causes a kind of euphoria (a "high"). The high results from a release of the chemical dopamine, as with other intoxicating drugs. Although relaxation may accompany the high, along with a modified perception of time and increased appetite, it may also cause feelings of anxiety, fear or panic. When the drug wears off, users often feel sleepy and depressed. In addition, short-term memory is impaired, as is one's ability to shift focus and make judgments. Coordination, balance and reaction time are also impaired making driving a dangerous business. Persistent effects of continual use include long-term memory and learning impairment, addiction and respiratory problems similar to those associated with cigarette smoking. Pot smoking also correlates to long-term anxiety and depression including in those who no longer smoke it, to the loss of motivation, and to an increased risk of psychosis, although the research on the relationship between marijuana use and mental illness have yet to demonstrate a causal effect. Recreational users smoke marijuana in order to induce in themselves the euphoria mentioned above (i.e., to get "high"). They don't smoke it to feel anxious or depressed, to lose motivation, impair their long-term memory, or contract bronchitis. To the extent they believe that these repugnant effects may occur, they accept them as unwelcomed side-effects. This high entails an alteration of their perceptions and faculties of cognition. Since human cognition is a precondition for making any choices, good or bad, to impair our cognition means impairing our ability to make choices. Morally conscientious people know that consistently acting well, even when we're cognitively at the top of our games, is difficult. We face temptations from within in the form of unruly emotions and outside in the form of alluring self-destructive alternatives and the inducements of unscrupulous people. When we're high, it's even more difficult to make good choices, for example, to act modestly, to treat members of the opposite sex with dignity and respect, to speak with due moderation, to maintain the reputations of others, not to eat or drink to excess, to be faithful to daily prayer, to keep faith in the face of difficult circumstances, etc. Sacred Scripture has little to say about getting high, but it See Brugger, Page 10 He prayed for God to raise up holy Pop priests, now he'll be forming them New seminary rector Father Traynor to be installed Dec. 12 BY ROXANNE KING While in junior high, Scott Traynor wanted to be a Navy pilot. "I wanted to spend my life doing something that was challenging, adventurous and demanded the best I had to offer," he told the Denver Catholic Register. Securing a Navy ROTC scholarship, he was studying computer engineering at Iowa State University with the goal to become a naval aviator when he spent one summer volunteering at a youth camp. He woke up one morning with the clear conviction that God had a plan for his life. "That is how I'm going to be most happy, and I've never asked God what that plan is … and I should," he recalled. "So I determined to take a year off of school, do some mission work and ask God what his plan for me is." He did, and while praying one day "for God to raise up outstanding priests," he heard a call he didn't expect. "I heard Jesus say in my heart, 'I want you to be my priest,'" he said. "I was honest with the Lord in that moment, and told him that being a priest was the last thing I wanted to do but that I trusted him, and his plan." He told Christ that if he wanted him to be a priest, to give him the desire to be one. "I prayed that prayer every day and by the time six months later I had finished with NET Ministries (mission work), I was eager to pursue the priesthood," he said. The following month he attended Denver's World Youth Day 1993 with 150 other NET alumni. "The moment Blessed John Paul II came to the microphone at Mile High and began 'Dear young people, I greet you in the name of Christ!' I knew in my heart that all the desires I had to be a Navy pilot really did come from God," he said, "and that they were meant to be fulfilled—not as a pilot, but rather as a priest of Jesus Christ." Now 42 and a priest of 13 years, tomorrow, Dec. 12, Father Traynor will be installed as FATHER SCOTT rector of St. TRAYNOR John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. As rector, he'll be responsible for forming the "outstanding priests" he had once prayed God would raise up. His response to that remarkable turn of events? "Gratitude and joy," he said. "I am grateful not just to be called to the work of priestly formation as rector, but to become rector of this particular seminary! St. John Vianney is a jewel in the Church, with its outstanding faculty and staff, and with the excellent and fruitful leadership of Msgr. (Michael) Glenn for the last 12 years, not to mention having its founding rector returned now as Archbishop (Samuel J. Aquila)—so many causes for gratitude!" The third of three adopted children of John and Dona Traynor, Father Traynor grew up in Eagan, Minn. He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary at St. Mary's University in Winona, Minn., a baccalaureate in sacred theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a licentiate of canon law from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Ordained to the priesthood for the Sioux Falls Diocese in 2000, he served as pastor of three parishes in South Dakota and as director of the St. Thomas More Newman Center at the University of South Dakota. From 2004-2007 he served as formator for seminarians at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver and worked as a judge for the Marriage Tribunal of the Sioux Falls Diocese. Since his priestly ordination, he has been an instructor and director at the Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. A book he wrote about prayer, "The Parish as a School of Prayer: Foundations for the New Evangelization," was published in February. Written at the request of the Institute for Priestly Formation, he was inspired by Blessed John Paul II's remarks on prayer in the apostolic letter "Novo Millennio Ineunte" ("At the Beginning of the New Millennium"). "It was written with priests in mind, but is accessible to anyone," Father Traynor said about his book. "I've heard fromBY KAR many lay people who have read Pope and enjoyed it and have been of the Y helped by it in simple ways to Church grow in their lives of prayer." says Fa Prayer is a topic Father Traytor of Q nor often addresses as a retreat Aurora. master and spiritual director. The o He also leads retreats on priestly of a po identity and mission. hortatio "If a man is called by God to Gospel. priesthood, the love of God in conclud him forms a specific vocationing of b al identity that is expressed in synod) priestly mission," he said. "In ican on God's love the man was born tion for again in baptism to live Christ's Christia own beloved Sonship. In holy Fathe orders, the priest is configured Católico to Christ the Head to live Christ's known own chaste spousal love, to live "Evange Christ's own healing love, to live new lig Christ's own revelation of the that it p Father, and to live Christ's own bring th servant love." a new He feels it's a special blessthat rea ing to be installed rector on the society. feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The p "Our Lady of Guadalupe was "invites revealed to Juan Diego bearing freshne Jesus in her womb, where the to find Father is knitting together the paths o perfect humanity of his Son in one the the power of the Holy Spirit," "It is he said. "(She) is a great icon for mount the whole endeavor of priestly "given t formation." oriented He sees his new post as a who alr "great adventure." In th "The Church needs wellsists th formed, holy, knowledgeable passive and generous priests," he said. church "I want to give myself fully, with needs t humility, joy and trust to SJV's ministr mission to form such priests." a decid ministr Roxanne King: 303-715-3215; editor@archden.org; www.twitter. com/DCRegister DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE: 303-722-4687 OR CIRCULATION@ARCHDEN.ORG Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 General Manager Karna Swanson Denver Catholic Register (USPS 557-020) is published weekly except the last week of December and the first week of January, and in June, July and August when it goes bi-weekly. The Register is printed by The Denver Post LLC in Denver. Periodical postage paid in Denver, CO. Editor Roxanne King Subscriptions: $35 a year in Colorado; $42 per year out of state. Foreign countries: $42 surface, all countries, 6-8 weeks for delivery; $135 air, all other countries (average). Mexico, $48 air; Canada, $55 air. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Denver Catholic Register, Circulation Dept., 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or e-mail circulation@archden.org. Business Manager Michael O'Neill Editorial: 303-715-3215 or editor@archden.org Advertising: 303-715-3253 or dcrads@archden.org Circulation: 303-715-3211 or circulation@archden.org Online: www.DenverCatholicRegister.org

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