Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

"Terrapin" recommended as a "compelling mystery novel" and an "exceedingly complex tale"

2013-06-17T14:35:46-07:00

Mary McWay Seaman reviews T. M. Doran's novel, Terrapin: A Mystery (Ignatius Press, 2012) for New Oxford Review:

A careful reading of this compelling mystery novel uncovers bounteous symbolism and multiple cryptic allusionssurrounding a long-hidden crime and several adolescent indiscretions. That said, readers should steel themselves early on against urges to overanalyze events in this exceedingly complex tale. The temptation to “find” themes quickly or to identify culprits is tricky as T.M. Doran’s intricate thriller, Terrapin, braids common strands from four men’s pasts to underscore the point that no one emerges wholly unscathed from the vicissitudes of youthful villainy. The long-dormant villainy in this case explodes unexpectedly into the four perpetrators’ lives during their sports-weekend reunion in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Aficionados of suspense fiction will appreciate the book’s surreal plot, its brisk pace, and its snappy repartee.

And:

Doran’s prose proclaims that mortals drag their childhoods with them through life’s long fight, and that each generation inhabits its own culture within the same country. Be that as it may, the novel’s unimaginable ending demonstrates that fraudulent intellectual and moral gymnastics in any culture are no match for the ongoing, unmitigated ramifications of malice on perpetrators and victims alike, ramifications that play forward in ways seen and unseen, whether or not they are ever acknowledged.

Read the entire review on the NOR website.

For more about the novel, or to purchases it, visit the Ignatus Press site, or go to the Terrapin book site to view a trailer, read excerpts, download a free short story, and learn more about Doran and his writing.

Last September, CWR interviewed Doran about his writing:

CWR: Who are some of the authors and thinkers who have influenced you the most?

Doran: As to literature, Evelyn Waugh, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, and T.S. Eliot, writers and poets who wrote from a Catholic perspective rather than writing explicitly Catholic novels. I read a variety of writers: Jane Austen, Dostoevsky, Patrick O'Brian, Thornton Wilder, Oscar Wilde, Dickens, Richard Adams, and I have learned something about the craft of writing from every one of them. I enjoy mystery stories, especially the golden age puzzle-plot stories from the 1920s through the 1940s. Some of my favorite mystery authors are G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, J.D. Carr (the locked room master), Rex Stout, and the early Ellery Queen mysteries that featured pure "ratiocination". I enjoy P.D. James, who is still writing.

I have been an avid reader of history and biography for decades, which helped immensely when I was composing Toward the Gleam

Thinkers who have influenced me include Blessed John Paul II (especially "Faith and Reason" and "The Splendor of the Truth"), Edith Stein (her journey from phenomenology to the convent), Kurt Goedel (his ideas about time and space), G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis and Frank Sheed (their accessible apologetics), Blaise Pascal (reason in the light of faith), William F. Buckley (conservatism based on first principles and natural law), and Augustine and Aquinas (a little at a time). I have a four-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy on my bookshelf, to which I refer quite often. I've always had a fascination with competing ideas.

Read the entire interview.

Ecumenism and Canon Law

2013-06-17T00:28:00-07:00

Ecumenism and Canon Law | R. Michael Dunnigan | CWR

Thoughts on Cardinal DiNardo's recent decision to allow the Methodist ordination of a woman in the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, recently permitted the United Methodist Church to celebrate an ordination service at the Catholic Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston. This event has set in motion a wave of criticism on orthodox Catholic blogs and websites. The criticism generally has focused on the fact that the Catholic Church does not recognize the validity of Methodist ordinations, and the fact that the presiding Methodist bishop was a woman. The prevailing critiques also charge Cardinal Di Nardo with the sin of scandal. However, the commentary to date has included little discussion of the law of the Church.

A follower of the vigorous criticism directed against Cardinal DiNardo might be surprised to learn that the cardinal’s decision enjoys relatively strong support in canon law. I do not mean that the law commands the accommodation that Cardinal DiNardo made for the Methodists, but rather that it provides him with ample discretion to make such a decision. Although the primary purpose of churches and cathedrals is for Catholic worship, canon 1210 makes allowance for some other uses of sacred places as well.

What other uses are permissible? Such uses must be only occasional, and they must not be opposed to the holiness of the place (cf. can. 1210). An example of an activity that would be contrary to the holiness of a church would be a political rally. By contrast, a legitimate other activity that might occasionally be held in a church would be a historical lecture.

Does a Methodist liturgy qualify as a legitimate other use of the Catholic cathedral? Canon 1210 itself does not directly answer this question, but the breadth of its language seems to allow any occasional use that is not contrary to the sacredness of the place. Moreover, in the 1993 Ecumenical Directory, the Holy See says outright that it sometimes is permissible for a non-Catholic liturgy to take place in a Catholic church.

Many Catholics will be surprised to learn this.

Continue reading on the CWR site.

"Pacem in Terris" at 50

2013-06-17T00:07:00-07:00

Pacem in Terris at 50 | J. J. Ziegler | CWR

Written in the midst of the nuclear arms race and the Cold War, John XXIII’s landmark encyclical contains important messages for our world today.

On April 11, 1963, The Beverly Hillbillies was the top television show in the United States, works by J. D. Salinger and John Steinbeck topped the fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists, and the lead headline in the New York Times was “Atom Submarine with 129 Lost in Depths 220 Miles Off Boston; Oil Slick Seen Near Site of Dive.” The Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine” was the nation’s most popular song; It Happened at the World’s Fair, starring Elvis Presley, was the most popular movie. And Blessed John XXIII issued Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”), the first papal encyclical addressed not only to the Catholic faithful, but also to all men of good will.

“By addressing an encyclical on peace to all men of good will, John XXIII was not merely being good Pope John,” says Mary Ann Glendon, president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. “He was insisting that the responsibility for setting conditions for peace does not just belong to the great and powerful of the world—it belongs to each and every one of us. That’s crystal clear in the closing paragraphs where he says, ‘There is an immense task incumbent on all men of good will’—the task ‘of bringing about true peace in the order established by God.’ It’s ‘an imperative of duty; a requirement of love.’”

Blessed John wrote his encyclical letter de pace omnium gentium in veritate, iustitia, caritate, libertate constituenda, according to the encyclical’s Latin title—“about establishing the peace of all nations in truth, justice, charity, liberty,” or as the phrase is more loosely rendered in the most popular English version, “on establishing universal peace in truth, justice, charity, and liberty.” The official Latin version appears in Acta Apostolicae Sedis (beginning on page 257); the Vatican website’s Latin version contains additional notes and at least one Latin error that did not appear in the original. The official version contains five untitled sections with unnumbered paragraphs.

The Italian version contained section titles, subsections, and subsection titles where none exist in the official Latin text. The translator of the most popular English version, which originally appeared in the publication The Pope Speaks, incorporated these Italian additions, while the translator of another English version, found here, did not. This latter English translation has the advantage of adhering more closely to the Latin in the body of the encyclical; unfortunately, it does not retain the original division into five sections, thus making the encyclical appear less structured than it is really is.

Reaction and influence

Pacem in Terris is an extended reflection on the moral order. “The Creator of the world has imprinted in man’s heart an order which his conscience reveals to him and enjoins him to obey,” the pontiff wrote (no. 5), explaining:

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Star Trek: There and Back Again

2013-06-17T00:03:00-07:00

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto star in a scene from the movie "Star Trek Into Darkness."

Star Trek: There and Back Again | Nick Olszyk | Catholic World Report

A Review of Star Trek Into Darkness

MPAA Rating, PG-13
USCCB Rating, A-III
Reel Rating: (3 Reels out of 5)

If you’re not in on the joke, Star Trek Into Darkness is a lot of fun. If you’re in on the joke, it’s even more. The film’s greatest strength lies in the fact that it’s essentially a flashy remake of a classic episode from the original series but with clever twists and turns that throws the story in a new and exciting direction. Yet even apart from its predecessors, this is a thrilling popcorn film designed to enthrall audiences with 3D special effects, witty dialogue, and poorly researched scientific explosions in space all with a cast of overly attractive actors. However, if you reach beneath the popcorn kernels at the bottom of the bucket, you will find that Into Darkness has remembered the central moral principles that made Gene Roddenberry’s original vision compelling: life is an objective good, love requires sacrifice, and the law was made for man, not man for the law.

The story begins in a volcano, which is always a good place to start. Spock is attempting to deactivate it from the inside to save a primate civilization without being seen by the natives. When the plan goes awry, Kirk and the Enterprise swoop in to save him, breaking their cover in spectacular fashion. This whole adventure is a direct violation Starfleet’s Prime Directive, the guiding principle of non-intervention. Kirk would never hesitate to break the rules to rescue a friend; Spock would have gladly died to preserve order. This moral dynamic is at the center of the Star Trek universe. For Kirk, life is a universal moral that supersedes artificial laws, even if this means discomfort to the larger group. For Spock, the “needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

As the film progresses, these philosophies are tested beyond what either of them could have dreamed. An act of terrorism sends the Enterprise deep into Klingon space where they are commanded to disobey the law by executing remotely rather than capturing the fugitive John Harrison. Now motivated by personal revenge, Kirk is more than willing to comply, even firing one of his closest friends who dares to challenge the mission’s motives. The audience suspects that not everything is what it seems; the clever Star Trek fan will begin to pick up clues the moment Kirk is given exactly seventy-two secret torpedoes. When the fugitive is finally confronted and revealed, well…it’s difficult to describe, but let’s say it left a big grin on my face for the rest of the movie.

This Star Trek adventure is both new and old, forward thinking and nostalgic.

Continue reading on the CWR blog.

Priests of the Domestic Church: A Father's Day Homily

2013-06-16T09:27:36-07:00

Priests of the Domestic Church: A Father's Day Homily | Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers | Ignatius Insight

In the days before global positioning systems, Mapquest, and Google Earth, men were stereotyped as reluctant to ask for directions. You know the scene: a couple is driving somewhere and, unable to find their destination, the wife turns to her husband and says, "Honey, maybe we should stop and ask for directions." The husband, dismayed that his wife would dare challenge his sense of direction, stubbornly says, "I know where I'm going!" This would go on and on until they eventually found the place or fell so far behind schedule that they would have no choice but to stop at the nearest gas station for directions.

Thanks to modern technology, those days are gone forever! In this day and age it's virtually impossible to get lost. However, a GPS may be able to get you from Portland to Chicago; Mapquest may be able to get you to your favorite downtown restaurant; Google Earth may show you the best route from New York to Australia but no amount of technology in the world will get you from earth to heaven!

What Jesus says in the Gospel is true of many men today: we are "troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd." [1] When a man would rather spend time looking at pornography or "hanging out with the fellas" than have any meaningful relationship with his wife and children, he is lost. When a man approaches dating as a conquest, where the primary goal is to "hit it and quit it," he is lost. When a man becomes wealthy at the expense of the poor, he is lost. When a man under the influence of drugs or alcohol beats his wife, passing on a legacy of violence and abuse to his children, he is lost.

Just as Jesus called laborers into the field to reap an abundant harvest of souls, He calls husbands and fathers who are lost to use the navigational tools of prayer, forgiveness, and mercy to find our way back to our Father in heaven. Just as Jesus called men to the priesthood to serve His Bride the Church, the same Jesus calls men through baptism to be priests of the domestic church, the church of the home. A husband and father should exercise his priestly ministry through "the offering he makes of himself and his daily activities." [2] This offering should be united to Christ's offering in the Eucharist "for their work, prayers, and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily labor, their mental and physical relaxation, if carried on in the spirit--and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne--all of these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." [3] The main job of the priest is to offer sacrifice, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should lead fathers to intimate and personal relationship with God, uniting him so closely to Christ that the Eucharist becomes the very soul and center of his spiritual and family life.
The priest of the home must accept the responsibility of living "the Gospel in faith and proclaiming it in word and deed, without hesitating to identify and denounce evil." [4] Christian parents are the primary and indispensable catechists of their own children. Fathers are not only called to preach the Gospel but also, and above all, to live the Gospel by setting a good example for their children. If our children see us living the Catholic faith with fidelity and joy, then we can be sure that our example will be worth more than a thousand words and have confidence that our love for Christ will be written into the hearts of our sons and daughters. When we do this, the Catholic faith will become more than a fond memory that fades with time. A father's living witness to covenant intimacy will become his enduring legacy, a precious gift for his children, and a sure sign of hope in God's endless mercy and love.

Before any of this can happen, we fathers must have the courage to take the first big step: we must dethrone the reign of sin in our lives so that we can welcome Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. Any man can be a daddy but it takes a real man to be a father, and the sooner we earthly fathers begin to appreciate the great gift we have been given and begin living the mission of service to our families--when we begin to make a gift of ourselves to our wives and children, and participate deeply and personally in the Fatherhood of God--the faster we will arrive at a civilization of love and a culture of life.

I remember the day my relationship with my father changed forever. When I informed him of my decision to join the Benedictines, not only was he disappointed; he was angry. What he said went something like this: "You're going to do what?!" He then reminded me: "You are the first person in the family to go to college. I spent all that money sending you to one of the best universities in the country. You studied economics and business, and instead of making something of yourself, you are going to waste your life in that monastery living with a bunch of men? What's wrong with you? What am I supposed to tell my friends?" I won't repeat what I said to him but on that day he became like Lazarus in the tomb; he became dead to me.

Many years later when my EWTN series debuted, my father received lots of phone calls: "Isn't that your son on TV?" My father, who as far as I knew only set foot in a Catholic church on his wedding day, began watching my program. Then he began watching the Mass. Then he started watching reruns of Mother Angelica. Then he started praying. My father, a professional entertainer, decided to stop singing Caribbean music and started singing and recording Gospel music exclusively. Then, like Lazarus coming out of the tomb, he called me and we spoke for thirty-one minutes and twelve seconds, which is the longest conversation we've had in almost twenty years. He spent most of the call talking to me about his relationship with Jesus.

A few months ago, I was shown the awesome power of prayer, forgiveness, and divine mercy. After years of not having a meaningful relationship with the man who destroyed our family, I met face-to-face with my father. I did not hear the words of repentance that I so longed to hear from him. Instead, this talented and gifted musician who was lost and who only now after seventy-four years is coming to faith in Jesus Christ, showed me the meaning of fatherhood by his example when he sang this song:

"O Lord, sweet Jesus, have mercy on me.
My eyes were wide open, yet I failed to see.
Dear Lord, I beg you have mercy; please, have mercy on me.
I am so sorry. Lord, forgive me.
Please show me the way.
I can't go on living this life without you.
Sweet Jesus, please tell me what to do.
Lord, I'm depending on you.
I want to live a life that's honest and true.
I will let nothing stand in my way.
Sweet Jesus, please hear my prayer.
O Lord, teach me how to pray,
I beg you, because at times I know not what to say
but when I think of Calvary I know my Jesus loves me.
Dear Lord, I beg you have mercy."

ENDNOTES:

[1] Matthew 9:36.

[2] Christifideles Laici, n.14

[3] Lumen Gentium, n.31

[4] Christifideles Laici, n.14

IgnatiusInsight.com Articles by Deacon Burke-Sivers:

• A Study In Faithful Obedience | Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers | New Foreword to From Slave to Priest
• Black and Catholic in America | An Interview with Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers
• Behold the Man! | An interview with Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers about his new EWTN series
• Hearing and Living the Truth | Harold Burke-Sivers
• The Truth and the Lie | Harold Burke-Sivers
• The Meaning and Necessity of Spiritual Fatherhood | Harold Burke-Sivers

Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, MTS is a deacon in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, and the founder of Aurem Cordis, an apostolate dedicated "to promote the truth and beauty of the gospel by encouraging others to submit themselves freely to the life-giving love of the Trinity and to become living witnesses to that love in the world." Deacon Burke-Sivers gives talks around the country on spirituality, family life, lay vocations, and other topics, and has appeared on "Catholic Answers Live", EWTN, and many local television and radio programs. He has a BA in economics from Notre Dame and an MTS from the University of Dallas. He, his wife Colleen, and their four children live in Portland, Oregon.

"Be a Dad!" by Fr. Larry Richards

2013-06-16T09:00:23-07:00

"Be a Dad!" | Fr. Larry Richards | Adapted and excerpted from Be a Man! Becoming the Man God Created You to Be | Ignatius Insight

You are going to die!

It doesn't matter how rich we are, or how popular we are, or how powerful we are: we are all going to "kick the bucket" one day. Isn't that a nice thought?

What we have to do is take some time to sit and meditate about taking our last breath. What do you want your wife to say about you? What do you want your kids to say about you? Once you've decided, "Okay, when I am taking my last breath this is what I want", you can start living your life with your end goal in mind. You will start living in such a way that when the day of your death happens, the people who know you will say what you want them to say.

Death is the ultimate thing that takes control out of our hands. Even if we commit suicide, we cannot control what happens after we die. Not one of us had control over our own birth and not one of us has control of what happens after we die.

I have been to a lot of deathbeds throughout my priesthood, so I know what it is going to be like when you are dying. While you are lying there, the thing that is going to be most important to you is your relationships—the people that you loved and the people that in return loved you.

Then why don't we live every day with that in mind? Make the decision to never let your wife or your kids go to bed or walk out the door without telling them first that you love them—life is just too short! It will change your family. It will change the world.

You should underline John 15:12 in your Bible, where Jesus commands us, "Love one another as I have loved you." This is not an option. He also said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you" (Jn 15:9). Jesus told the people He loved that He loved them.

Why is it that men do not do that? Men are embarrassed. They are afraid. It makes them vulnerable. They think to be a man, you don't go around telling the people you love that you love them; but Jesus told twelve men that He loved them. Then He told us to love others in the same way.

Let me give you a hint: you will never in your life regret that you told your wife and your kids and the people you love that you love them—never. You won't be lying on your deathbed one day saying, "I can't believe that I daily told my loved ones that I loved them. What is the matter with me?"

Now, how do you fall in love with someone? You know that you did not get to know your future wife by meeting her once and giving her forty five minutes to an hour once a week. You spent time with her. You got to know her. The same is true with our relationship with God. It might take you months—it might take you years—but you have to do it. You have to keep spending time with God until the answer to the question of whether or not you know God is unequivocally yes.

We need to know who our true Father is. There's only one Father for everybody: God the Father! That guy you call your dad, he's the instrument of fatherhood, but he's not your true Father.

When we talk about our fathers—whether we had a good father, a bad father, a close and supportive father, or a distant and unsupportive father whom we did not know at all—it doesn't matter as much because the reality is, we all have the same Father in heaven. It's that Father Who will bring healing to us.

Husbands are called to love God primarily through their wives. Your wife is the sacrament of Christ to you. You are the sacrament of Christ to your wife. When she looks at you, she is supposed to see Jesus Christ. That is why Ephesians 5:22–24 is such a wonderful passage. It says, "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands." Many of us remember the translation that said that wives were to be "submissive to their husbands". The problem is that many men just stop with their wives being "submissive". The men love that part, which is why so many women go crazy.

I make this very explicit when I am preaching at a marriage ceremony. I start with the bride and I say, "Sweetheart, you read the Bible every day, don't you?" At first I usually get a "Yes, Father", and then I say kiddingly, "If you lie to a priest, you know, you go to hell." Then she will usually quickly say, "Okay, no, Father." Then I continue, "Well, there is a verse in Ephesians that says, 'Wives, be submissive to your husbands, as to the Lord.' " And then I ask, "Do you think it means what it says?" And I always get an emphatic "No, Father!" Then I literally jump up and down and scream, "Yes, it means what it says!" When I say this, all the feminists in the crowd become very upset and say things like, "This is another reason I hate the Catholic Church." And the bride thinks, "Why did we ever get this priest to marry us?" I love this!

Then, as anyone who knows me knows, I am an equal opportunity offender, so I turn to the groom, who usually likes all of this. Now it is time for the other shoe to fall. I then ask the groom, "You read the Bible every day, right?" He always responds, "No, Father." Then I ask, "Well, do you know what it says in Ephesians after 'Wives, be submissive to your husbands'?" The groom always shakes his head and says, "No." Then I continue, "It says, 'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.' " Then I ask, "Do you know what that means?" I then continue kiddingly, "Your life is over!" Then I tell them that every day they need to be more concerned about each other than they are about themselves! That is what marriage is about!

So you need to start to do at least one unselfish act for your wife every day. Surprise her. When was the last time you treated her the same way you did when you were still trying to get her to marry you?

Next, let us focus on your children, which I think is easier because they are a part of you. Do we allow our children to be themselves? Some people think that the best father you can be is a strong disciplinarian. Absolutely, I agree. But just as much as you discipline your children, you must also build them up.

Sometimes we are just harsh and we think this is what God wants, but that isn't the way God is. God loves us. He gives away His life for us. And then He always tells us He loves us. Correct?

One of the roles that men have, given to them by God (see Gen 3:16; 1 Cor 11:3; Eph 5:23), is to be the spiritual leaders of their families. Now this is where I have called men "spiritual wimps" for many years. Many men have let their wives be the spiritual leaders of their families, but this is not the way God created it to be. Now this does not mean that you are the master of your wife and family; it means, like Jesus Christ, you are the servant leader of your family.

First off, this means that you lead by example. You must be a man of prayer. For it is only as a son who listens to his heavenly Father that you can bring the will of the Father to your family. You cannot be a good and true leader unless you are a true and good follower. You must daily spend committed time in prayer with God, then lead your family in prayer. Do you have daily committed time with your family in prayer? And no, grace before meals is not enough!

You need to be the spiritual leader by being a man of sacrifice. You exist to give your life away for others, like Jesus did. That means you give your life for your family first and foremost.

My good friend Danny Abramowicz loves to tell men at men's conferences: "Men, your kids will always love their mother, but they want to become just like you!" If we are not holy ourselves, then our families will not be holy. It is that simple. God is going to speak to men, women, and children, but He is speaking especially to men to help us be His very image.

You are the sacrament of Fatherhood to your children just like St. Joseph was the sacrament of Fatherhood to Jesus. Just as God used St. Joseph to form Jesus Christ in His humanity, so too does He want to use you to form your children. So I would encourage you before you read any further to stop and ask St. Joseph for his intercession for you so you can grow in holiness.

The Lord God of the universe is calling all of us to be great men, men that are examples of Him and who use Him as our example. We are called to become another Christ in this world. Our goal is to bring others to Him.

Do it and you will live forever.

Be a Man! Becoming the Man God Created You to Be | Fr. Larry Richards

• Also available in downloadable e-book format

Men are rediscovering the importance of the spiritual life. And Father Larry Richards is helping them do it. While some writers apply a one-size-fits-all approach to the Christian life, Father Richards draws on his many years of ministry and his own experience as a man to inspire other men as men.

In Be a Man!, he recounts his struggles to learn true manhood, as well as the inspiring stories of others he has served in his decades as a priest. He tells men how to focus on the right goal, how to live as a beloved son of God, of the need to acknowledge one's faults and to live according to the Holy Spirit, to be a man of true love and of wisdom, to appreciate properly the differences between men and women, to pursue holiness, and to make a difference in the world. Not preachy but direct, Father Richards challenges men to be strong, without putting on a mask of false strength or machismo. He calls men to admit their weaknesses and limitations, while urging them to find strength in faith and genuine love to overcome their sins and faults.

Although a celibate priest, he minces no words when it comes to the place of sexuality--for the unmarried man as well as for the married man. He shows that true manliness is not opposed to love but thrives on it. Father Richards stresses that a relationship with Christ reveals the meaning of a man's life and his identity as a man. He inspires men to become the true heroes they long to be--men of authentic courage, compassion and integrity. This is a highly readable book for men by a man who knows how to talk to men about the things that matter most.

"Father Larry talks straight to men in his own manly style. He pulls no spiritual punches--I don't think he knows how to! He pokes, pushes, sometimes verbally slaps men into being God's men, all with an obvious love for them and faith in their ability to persevere to heaven." -- Dr. Ray Guarendi, radio host and author

"Be a Man is a must-read for all men who are serious about strengthening their relationship with God. This exceptional book speaks clearly and directly, challenging men to live their faith with courage and conviction. Be a Man is a spiritual wake-up call that offers a refreshingly honest presentation of what it means to be a man of God. With a unique blend of humor, passion, and frankness that has become his trademark style, Fr. Larry Richards explores how a Christ-centered male spirituality fosters growth in holiness, and inspires men to become loving servants of their wives, families, and the Church." -- Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, Aurem Cordis apostolate

Fr. Larry Richards, a popular speaker at men's conferences around the country, is the pastor of an inner city parish in Erie, Pennsylvania. He hosts his own daily national radio show on Relevant Radio, and is the founder ofThe Reason for Our Hope Foundation.

Sinners, Prophets, and the Business of Heaven

2013-06-15T09:14:11-07:00

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, June 16, 2013 | Carl E. Olson

Readings:

2 Sm 12:7-10, 13
Ps 32:1-2, 5, 7, 11
Gal 2:16, 19-21
Lk 7:36—8:3 or 7:36-50

What did the most famous king in the Old Testament and a poor, anonymous woman in the Gospels have in common? They were both sinners. They were both in need of forgiveness. And they both knew it.

King David’s sin is as well-known as the woman’s sin in today’s Gospel reading is unknown. David, having witnessed the beauty of the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s loyal warriors, arranged to have Uriah put on the front lines of battle, where he was killed. It was the darkest moment of David’s often magnificent and noble life, and the king finally confessed to the prophet Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” In the Psalm written after Nathan had confronted him about his murderous actions, the repentant David wrote, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. … Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance” (Psa. 51:10, 14).

David’s life and sin were chronicled in great detail, by others and by himself. His remorse was expressed with poetic poignancy by his own pen. It is quite a contrast to the sinful woman who came to the house of the Pharisee where Jesus was invited to dine. Her name is not given, her sins are not described or listed, and if she uttered any words, they are not recorded. She may have been a prostitute; whatever the case, her sins were apparently public and well-known.

These various facts and details are not of primary concern to Luke the Evangelist because he is intent on revealing Christ’s mercy, love, and power to forgive sins. “You perceive,” wrote St. Peter Chrysologus about this particular story, “that Christ came to the Pharisee’s table not to be filled with food for the body but to carry on the business of heaven while he was in the flesh.”

A significant amount of this business of heaven was worked out within the earthly context of Jesus’ ongoing debates and confrontations with the Pharisees. The host, the Pharisee Simon, was concerned with judging—was Jesus a true prophet?—which is why Jesus asked him a question that required his judgment as a Pharisee, an interpreter of the Law. Simon, in judging rightly the answer to Jesus’ question, rendered judgment upon his own actions, or lack of actions. The problem was that Simon, like many of the Pharisees, was fixated on the letter of law, while failing to love the Giver of the law.

Put another way, Simon had asked Jesus into his home in order to judge Jesus, while the sinful woman sought out Jesus in order to kiss and anoint his feet. The Pharisee wished to stand face to face with the Incarnate Word in stubborn wariness; the woman desired only to worship at his feet in a silent act of vulnerable love. She did not have to give verbal expression to her sorrow and repentance for her actions spoke louder than words. Her sins, Jesus said, were forgiven “because she has shown great love” and because of her faith: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

We are not saved by faith alone but, as the Apostle Paul told the Galatians, who were being tempted to embrace a form of Pharisaism: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). Faith, James emphasized, is dead without works—and those works are animated by charity and oriented toward God and neighbor (James 2:8-18).

“To err human,” wrote Alexander Pope, “to forgive divine.” That is the essential message of today’s readings, which unflinchingly point out man’s sinful ways while rejoicing in God’s merciful ways. All of us—famous kings and unnamed women and everyone between—are sinners, and Christ died for us so that we, as Paul writes, can be crucified with Christ and thus truly live by faith and love.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the June 13, 2010, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Appearances and interviews by Mother Dolores Hart, OSB, author of "The Ear of the Heart"

2013-06-15T01:06:23-07:00

The Ear of the Heart: An Actress' Journey from Hollywood to Holy Vows keeps garnering positive reviews as Mother Dolores Hart, OSB, continues to give print, radio, and television interviews. Here are some recent pieces about the book and Mother Hart.

• Mother Dolores was interviewed by Raymond Arroyo on the June 6th edition of EWTN's "The World Over" (the interview begins at about the 41:00 mark).

• "Mother Dolores Hart has a new book out" (June 7), by WJLA, ABC News’ Washington, D.C., affiliate.

• Sister Rose Pacatte’s “Sr. Rose at the Movies” blog on Patheos announced that "The Daughters of St. Paul in Culver City and Catholics in Media are sponsoring a book signing event with Mother Dolores Hart, OSB, on Saturday, June 29, 2013 at their bookstore, 3908 Sepulveda Blvd, 90230." Visit her blog for more details.

• Nell Minow has an interview with Mother Dolores on her "Movie Mom" blog on Beliefnet. "The experience of living in a monastic community allows you to see that every single moment is all you’ve got.”

• The Christian Post included “The Ear of the Heart” on its Book Stop summer reading list, writing, "You don’t have to be Catholic to appreciate how faith kept Hart from falling prey to the violence and alcohol addiction that plagued her home and led her to sacrifice future fame."

• The Anchoress, Elizabeth Scalia, posted her two-part Q-and-A with Mother Dolores, "All love relationships don't end at the altar!" and "A Chanting Coffin-Maker: Mother Dolores & the Gift of Agape".

• Catholic News Service uploaded its video interview with Mother Dolores Hart to YouTube.

• Catholic News service posted a story, "For Mother Dolores Hart, it's time for her close-up -- again", on June 10th. Several Catholic newspapers ran the story, including Catholic Philly (Archdiocese of Philadelphia), The Catholic Sentinel (Archdiocese of Portland), The Tablet (Diocese of Brooklyn), The Dialog (Diocese of Wilmington), and The Catholic Sun (Diocese of Phoenix).

• "At Home With Jim and Joy” on EWTN Radio posted its interview with Mother Dolores Hart. The interview begins at approximately at 10:20.

• “The Bishop’s Radio Hour” on Immaculate Heart Radio posted its interview with Mother Dolores Hart. The interview begins at approximately 44:20.

• Business Wire reports that Mother Hart will be appearing at Elvis Week 2013 to be held at Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., the week of August 10-17. She will be one of the guests interviewed for "Conversations on Elvis", "one of the most popular Elvis Week events," which will be held on Wednesday, August 14, at 1:00 p.m. at the Elvis Week Main Stage. Following Conversations, Mother Dolores will be signing copies of her book, The Ear of the Heart.

Fighting the Culture of Death, One Katie At a Time

2013-06-15T00:19:46-07:00

Fighting the Culture of Death, One Katie At a Time | Michael Coren | CWR

As Belgium and other countries embrace euthanasia for children, Catholics must stand up for the most vulnerable among us.

Belgium is a troubled country on any number of levels. Its unity has been tenuous for decades, it is increasingly challenged by an Islamic immigrant community that rejects European virtues, and just like its neighbor, Holland, it is clumsily eager to embrace the latest in eugenics and social engineering. Only last month the Belgian Federal Parliament seriously considered legalizing euthanasia for children and it now appears it is “about to expand its controversial ‘right to die’ policies to include access to euthanasia for some gravely ill children.”

Don’t be shocked. I have debated “assisted suicide” zealots who believe that if depressed teenagers want to take their own lives—and, tragically, many teens travel that bumpy road of despair at some troubled point—they should be empowered by the state to do so. Poor old Belgium, once so faithful and brave.

I mention this because I have, I suppose, a particular insight into how terrifying euthanasia can be and into the vulnerability of those who it especially horrifies.

Let me introduce you to Katie, who is what society describes as “handicapped”. She was born several months premature and spent a long time in hospital. She came home accompanied by a nursing team, to a house wired for oxygen. It’s ironic, in that the same hospital advised Katie’s mother to abort her because there were likely, they said, to be “complications.”

I know all this because her mother is my sister, and Katie is my niece.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

G.K. Chesterton Book Collection Giveaway

2013-06-14T13:11:54-07:00

Today is the 77th anniversary of the death of G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), and in honor of the great author, Brandon Vogt and Ignatius Press are going to give away five Chesterton classics and collections. From Brandon's site:

Thanks to the good folks at Ignatius Press, the primary publisher of Chesterton's works today, I'm devoting this week's giveaway to the life and legacy of G.K. Chesterton. One reader will receive FIVE books by and about the Apostle of Common Sense.

The books are:

Go to Brandon's site to find out how to participate and possibly win the five books.

China’s Modern Martyrs: From Mao to Now

2013-06-14T13:02:06-07:00

China’s Modern Martyrs: From Mao to Now | Anthony E. Clark, Ph.D. | Catholic World Report

The untold story of the Communist destruction of the Our Lady of Consolation Trappist Abbey at Yangjiaping in 1947

Part 1, Accusations

“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.” John 1:10

I have just returned from another year in China where I have witnessed the Church grow. I have seen churches struggle to accommodate the crowds who come for Holy Mass, and I have listened to countless stories of Christian suffering under China’s Communist rule. Over the years I have traveled with, worshipped with, and prayed with Chinese Catholics. Priests have risked their safety to meet me at secluded places, accompany me on peasant-filled busses to remote places of Catholic martyrdom, and send me surreptitious messages about the continued suppression, suffering, and humiliation that China’s Catholics endure every day.

I once sat across from a crippled underground bishop, his spine permanently stooped over from 20 years of torture in a Communist prison because he refused to denounce the pope. The bishop’s eyes beamed with joy, despite his distorted face, and he said over and over, “Thank you, Lord.” At such times, when I am with holy Chinese Catholics who have suffered tortures for their faith, I recall the famous line from St. Augustine: “God had one Son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.” This holy bishop, Hu Daguo (1920-2011), was divinely connected to the suffering Son for whom he too had suffered.

For nearly a decade I have preserved testimonies, handwritten accounts, and archival documents that outline how China’s Church has suffered under its Communist authorities, and in the following series I will highlight some of those stories, stories that will help Catholics better understand China’s modern martyrs, from Mao to now.

Looking ahead: His Excellency, Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin 馬達欽主教

While most Westerners hear only of China’s “economic miracle” and its appalling persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, few news sources or university courses discuss the government’s consistent maltreatment and discrimination against Catholic Christians.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Why do some Catholic schools require students to read lousy, vulgar books?

2013-06-14T12:48:16-07:00

by Carl E. Olson | CWR blog

A reader recently sent an e-mail which opened with this question: "Has St. Ignatius High School never heard of Ignatius Press?"

The institution in question is a Jesuit preparatory school in Cleveland, Ohio. I know very little about it (I'm told that tuition is around $11,000 a year), but I see that the school's website features the following quote:

"The purpose of our education is to give a young man the tools whereby he can answer the question What does God want from me?" -- Rev. Robert J. Welsh, S.J., '54

Very nice. But, having read the school's required summer reading list, I wonder, "Does God really want teenagers to be reading books filled with numerous vulgarities, sexually-explicit language and references, and perspectives that are amoral and hedonistic?"

For example, the novel, The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, which is required summer reading for "English I" and "Honors English I", contains the following passage, uttered by the book's central character, Junior, a teenage boy growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation (warning: sexual language):

I spend hours in the bathroom with a magazine that has one thousand pictures of naked movie stars:

Naked woman + right hand = happy happy joy joy

Yep, that’s right, I admit that I masturbate.

I’m proud of it.

I’m good at it.

I’m ambidextrous.

If there were a Professional Masturbators League, I’d get drafted number one and make millions of dollars.

And maybe you’re thinking, “Well, you really shouldn’t be talking about masturbation in public.”

Well, tough, I’m going to talk about it because EVERYBODY does it. And EVERYBODY likes it.
And if God hadn’t wanted us to masturbate, then God wouldn’t have given us thumbs.

Yeah, yeah, I get it: this is real teen talk written to engage teens who live in the real world and who want tough, straight, honest fiction that takes on controversial and difficult topics. That's the usual line trotted out in defense of such overrated pieces of fiction. Junior also expresses his anger at God and Jesus (after the death of his grandmother's death) by doodling cartoons that are stupid at best and certainly offensive. There is also the dubious revelation that Indians, according to Junior, used to be supporters of gay marriage--until their open-mindedness was corrupted:

Continue reading on the CWR blog.

The Anticlerical Pope

2013-06-13T14:51:39-07:00

Pope Francis greets Slovenia's Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek during a private audience at the Vatican June 13. (CNS photo/Maria Grazia Picciarella, pool)

The Anticlerical Pope | Russell Shaw | CWR blog

Is Pope Francis our first anticlerical pope? Technically speaking, he isn't--his two predecessors also were more or less critical of clericalism--but he is well on his way to being the most outspoken one.

Consider a widely circulated quote from a 2011 interview he gave while he was still Cardinal Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. In case you haven't seen it or have forgotten it, the key passage goes like this:

"As I have said before, there is a problem: the temptation to clericalism. We priests tend to clericalize the laity. We do not realize it, but it is as if we infect them with our own thing. And the laity--not all but many--ask us on their knees to clericalize them, because it is more comfortable to be an altar boy than the protagonist of a lay path….

"The layman is a layman and has to live as a layman with the strength of his baptism, which enables him to be a leaven of the love of God in society…not from his pulpit but from his everyday life. And the priest--let the priest carry the cross of the priest, since God gave him a broad enough shoulder for this."

These are strong, bracing words. But besides the words, Francis's manner and lifestyle--unpretentious, simple, direct--constitute a kind of living repudiation of certain clericalist conventions. (Lest there be any doubt--many other good priests also speak and live this way.)

The essence of clericalism in the sense in which Pope Francis (and I) use the word is a way of thinking that takes for granted that the clerical vocation and state in life are both superior to and normative for all other Christian vocations and states.

Continue reading on the CWR blog.

What’s Love Got To Do With it? Lessons in Love from William Shakespeare

2013-06-12T00:03:00-07:00

What’s Love Got To Do With it? Lessons in Love from William Shakespeare | Joseph Pearce | CWR

The sobering lesson of Romeo and Juliet falls today on deaf modern ears

Oh what’s love got to do, got to do with it,
What’s love but a second-hand emotion;
What’s love got to do, got to do with it,
Who needs a heart
When a heart can be broken.

— Tina Turner

Love is a smoke rais’d with the fume of sighs;
Being purg’d, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
Being vex’d, a sea nourish’d with loving tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet...
I have lost myself; I am not here:
This is not Romeo, he’s some other where.

— Romeo

… if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black …
Come, night; come, Romeo …
Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow’d night,
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.

— Juliet

What is love? For Tina Turner it’s an emotion, second-hand and second-rate. For Romeo, it’s mere madness; something sweet and bitter on which we choke; something that makes us lose ourselves and our senses. For Juliet it’s a blindness that makes us prefer the darkness to the light.

For John Lennon, it’s all we need....

All we need is love, love, love is all we need; all we need is tawdry emotion and the bitter-sweet madness that makes us blind to everything except the darkness of the Night. If this is love, it can go to Hell. Indeed, if this is love it’s already going there.

But is this love?

For St. Paul, love is the greatest of all the virtues. For Christ, the two great commandments are to love God and to love our neighbor. On the deepest theological level, God is love. God and Love are One. It is ironic, therefore, that Jesus Christ and John Lennon are in apparent agreement. Love is all we need.

The problem is that John Lennon does not mean the same thing as Jesus Christ when he speaks of love. For Lennon and his legion of admirers, love is about doing our own thing; it’s about marching to our own drum. In other words, it’s ultimately self-centered. It’s about me and not the other. For Christ, love is about laying down our lives for our friends—and for our enemies. It’s ultimately selfless and self-sacrificial. It’s about the other and not me. In short, and to put the matter bluntly, the “love” that Lennon espouses is the very opposite of the love that Christ practices and preaches.

This primal difference between the two loves—one true, the other false—is at the heart of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

New: "Popieluszko: Freedom is Within Us"

2013-06-11T23:52:05-07:00

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Popieluszko: Freedom is Within Us

• DVD | 149 minutes

The stirring, powerful true story of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, the courageous young priest martyr who became the chaplain and spiritual leader of the large trade union in Poland, Solidarity, in the 1980s. At 37 yrs. old, Fr. Popiełuszko was brutally murdered by Communist agents for his outspoken defense of his people, and proclaiming the teachings of the Church on human rights and the dignity of the human person.

An ordinary young priest in many ways, Fr. Jerzy had a dynamic personality, a deep prayer life, and a strong empathy for the persecution and sufferings of the workers and trade unionists, especially when Martial Law was declared in 1981. He was a beacon of hope in those dark days and his message of truth was devoured by the Polish people after 40 years of oppression. Thousands came from all over Poland to hear him speak and every month the crowds grew, bringing the Secret Police closer to his door.

He was harassed, threatened, and imprisoned, but he would not be silenced. His friends suggested that he leave Poland for his own safety but he replied "my place is with the people" and "I am ready for anything." On October 19, 1984, three Communist agents kidnapped Father Jerzy and he was viciously beaten, bound, and thrown into the Vistula River. A priest greatly revered by the Polish nation, over 700,000 attended his funeral, and a national shrine at his grave in front of his parish church in Warsaw is visited by a million people yearly. He was beatified in 2010.

Bonus Extras:

• 16 page Companion Collector's Booklet
• "Behind the Scenes" film on making of movie (30 minutes)
• "Victors Never Die"- Special documentary on Fr. Popieluszko (50 minutes)

Boy Scouts, “Bigotry” and the Catholic Culture Wars

2013-06-10T00:03:00-07:00

Boy Scouts, “Bigotry” and the Catholic Culture Wars | Anne Hendershott | Catholic World Report

The progressive group, Catholic United, tries to smear a priest who cuts ties with the BSA

The decision by the Boy Scouts to include self-identified gay scout members has opened a new front in the Catholic culture wars as progressive Catholic organizations are denouncing the decision by a Bremerton, Washington, Catholic priest to cut parish ties with the Scouts following the release of their new policy. Calling the priest’s decision “bigoted” and “bullying,” James Salt, the leader of the progressive organization, Catholics United has organized an online petition asking Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain to “help bring healing to innocent kids and hurting souls who deserve better than bullying.”

On May 26^th, Fr. Derek Lappe, pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, posted a letter addressed to his parishioners on the parish website which criticized the Boy Scout’s decision. In his letter, Fr. Lappe advised parishioners of his intention to “part ways” with the Boy Scouts: “I do not feel it is possible for us to live out and to teach the authentic truth about human sexuality within the confines of the Boy Scout’s new policy.”

In his letter, Fr. Lappe questioned the new Boy Scout policy, which he believes is based on the idea that same sex attraction is genetic and unchangeable. He stated:

For many years we have seen headlines that proclaim a genetic origin for homosexuality. Various groups in concert with a willing media have tried to convince people that being “gay” is a genetically defined trait, as if being sexually attracted to a person of the same sex is no different an expression of DNA than one’s height or the color of one’s skin. The reality however, is that there is nothing scientific or logical in such a position.

But, Fr. Lappe wrotes “The genesis of same-sex attraction is much more complicated.” He referred to Catholic Medical Association’s 2000 document, Homosexuality and Hope, and its many references to scholarly research studies supporting the opposing view that there may be sociological and psychological factors to same sex attraction. Concluding that the genesis of same sex attraction is “much more complicated” than those promoting a genetic origin for homosexuality, Fr. Lappe said that his parish would no longer participate in “offering a program of ratifying a label of gay which the young man has placed on himself and which so many elements of society also are happy to place on him.”

Fr. Lappe was accurately portraying Catholic teachings on homosexuality. But, in an angry statement posted on the Catholics United website on May 31st by James Salt, their Executive Director, the Catholic Church was attacked as a “harbor for bigotry and shaming.”

Continue reading on the CWR site.

Pope Francis reflects on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, mercy, and love

2013-06-09T18:28:37-07:00

The Holy Father's Angelus address (text from Vatican Radio):

Dear brothers and sisters!

The month of June is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the highest human expression of divine love. Just this past Friday, in fact, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus: the feast that sets the tone for the whole month. Popular piety highly prizes symbols, and the Heart of Jesus is the ultimate symbol of God's mercy – but it is not an imaginary symbol, it is a real symbol, which represents the center, the source from which salvation for all humanity gushed forth.

In the Gospels we find several references to the Heart of Jesus, for example, in the passage where Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart. (Mt 11:28-29)” Then there is the key story of the death of Christ according to John. This evangelist in fact testifies to what he saw on Calvary: that a soldier, when Jesus was already dead, pierced his side with a spear, and from the wound flowed blood and water (cf. Jn 19.33-34). John recognized in that – apparently random – sign, the fulfillment of prophecies: from the heart of Jesus, the Lamb slain on the cross, flow forgiveness and life for all men. But the mercy of Jesus is not just sentiment: indeed it is a force that gives life, that raises man up! [This Sunday]’s Gospel tells us this as well, in the episode of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus, with his disciples, is just arrived in Nain, a village in Galilee, at the very moment in which a funeral is taking place. a boy is buried, the only son of a widow. Jesus’ gaze immediately fixes itself on the weeping mother. The evangelist Luke says: “Seeing her, the Lord was moved with great compassion for her (v. 13).” This “compassion” is the love of God for man, it is mercy, i.e. the attitude of God in contact with human misery, with our poverty, our suffering, our anguish. The biblical term “compassion” recalls the maternal viscera: a mother, in fact, experiences a reaction all her own, to the pain of her children. In this way does God love us, the Scripture says.
And what is the fruit of this love? It is life! Jesus said to the widow of Nain, “Do not weep,” and then called the dead boy and awoke him as from a sleep (cf. vv. 13-15). The mercy of God gives life to man, it raises him from the dead. The Lord is always watching us with mercy, [always] awaits us with mercy. Let us be not afraid to approach him! He has a merciful heart! If we show our inner wounds, our sins, He always forgives us. He is pure mercy! Let us never forget this: He is pure mercy! Let us go to Jesus!

Let us turn to the Virgin Mary: her immaculate heart – a mother’s heart – has shared the “compassion” of God to the full, especially at the hour of the passion and death of Jesus. May Mary help us to be meek, humble and compassionate with our brethren.

After the Angelus, Pope Francis spoke these words to Pilgrims:

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today in Krakow are proclaimed Blessed two Polish women religious: Zofia Czeska Maciejowska, who, in the first half of the 17^th century, founded the Congregation of the Virgins of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Margaret Lucia Szewczyk, who in the 19^th century founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Sorrows. With the Church in Krakow we give thanks to the Lord!

I affectionately greet all the pilgrims present today: church groups, families, schools, associations, movements.

I greet the faithful from Mumbai, India.

I greet the Family Love Movement of Rome, the confraternities and volunteers of the Sanctuary of Mongiovino, near Perugia, Umbria, the Young Franciscans of Umbria, the "House of Charity" in Lecce, the faithful of the province of Modena, whom I encourage [in their work of] reconstruction [the region was hard-hit by an earthquake in 2012], and those of Ceprano. I greet the pilgrims of Ortona, where we venerate the relics of the Apostle Thomas, who made a journey “from Thomas to Peter”!
Thank you!

I wish you all a good Sunday, and a good lunch!

Review: Dr. Hitchock's "HIstory of the Catholic Church" is "a unique joy."

2013-06-07T15:52:44-07:00

Over on Fr. Dwight Longenecker's "Standing on My Head" blog, Christian LeBlanc had penned a guest book review of Dr. James Hitchcock's book, History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium (which is also available in Electronic Book Format):

Last week I started reading James Hitchcock’s History of the Catholic Church. It’s subtitled From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium. It thinks big. But it’s only…wait for it…500 pages long, 4 years per page! Just kidding: it’s 500 pages, and it takes the small-essay concept of Europe’s capsules; and expands it into an entire history. In other words, what one normally expects in a history book, pages of narrative, is replaced by a timeline stream of digestible individual articles. I was joking about 4 years per page, but the articles are about 4 to the page. For example in the “Reform and Counter-Reform” chapter, p. 297 lists these: Protestant Divisions, The Tridentine Spirit, The Baroque, and Patrons. They may be read as freestanding articles; but they’re arranged to lead from one to the next, and cohere over the span of the chapter into a comprehensive understanding of the whole period.

History is a unique joy. Pick an era, browse the subtitles in the margins. Stop on one that strikes you. Read that article for a couple of minutes. Proceed to the next one, or jump to another page. History is less of a braid, running from top to bottom; and more of a long tapestry, going back and forth as well as up and down. And like Barron’s Catholicism, each few minutes of information has been carefully edited into a self-contained little essay, a thought capsule, to use Europe’s term. For example, I just read Hitchcock’s capsule on Fr. Damien of Molokai. 230 words don’t just tell us why he matters, but draw an empathetic portrait of the saint that unexpectedly pricks my heart, as Chaucer would say. Like Catholicism, in History every second, every word counts, sometimes movingly so.

The structure of the book aside, History’s content reflects the mind of the Church. That is, it covers what matters to the Church, and how the Church matters to the World; and does so from a Catholic perspective. That’s not to say the book isn’t critical of the Church, it is; but its critiques are orthodox.

Read the entire review. For more about Dr. Hitchcock's book, visit its page at www.Ignatius.com. Also read the book's Introduction on the Catholic World Report site.

Discernment and Communion

2013-06-07T11:37:36-07:00

Discernment and Communion | Fr. Bryce Sibley | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

If young people want to properly discern a vocation, they need an expert to help guide them.

Several years ago I had a discussion with a young man about his discerning a possible vocation to the priesthood. During our conversation, this young man confidently told me that, having already completed his discernment, he was certain that he was called neither to priesthood nor to celibacy. I asked him how exactly he had arrived at this conclusion. He explained that he had prayed about it for a while, made a weekend retreat, and after that he knew with certainty that God wanted him to get married. I then asked whether he had sought counsel during discernment process—with a priest, religious, or trusted spiritual advisor? His answer was that there was no one. He had discerned he was not called to priesthood or religious life all by himself.

I know that this young man is not unique in his solitary vocational discernment. It’s something of which I have seen a fair amount over the years—young people who decide that they ought to discern a call to priesthood or the consecrated life, and then come to the conclusion about their vocation without having discussed it with anyone. While I admire the apparent willingness to discern a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life, young people should know that honest and authentic vocational discernment can never be done alone. There is one main reason for this: no vocation in the Church is “private.” Thus, proper vocational discernment always has a communal and ecclesial dimension. If young people come to me and say that they have discerned that they were not called to celibacy without any assistance or guidance, I usually tell them to go back to square one with the discernment process. Quite possibly they have arrived at the right conclusion, but the way in which they got there was faulty.

There are several reasons why discernment in isolation should be avoided.

Continue reading at www.HPRweb.com.

The Christian Filmmaker and Bringing Faith to the Big Screen

2013-06-07T11:32:28-07:00

The Christian Filmmaker and Bringing Faith to the Big Screen | Jim Graves | CWR

Dean Wright, director of For Greater Glory, discusses being a Christian in Hollywood and his new project, Kingdom Come.

Dean Wright, director of the 2012 film For Greater Glory, made his first movie as a boy attending grammar school in Scottsdale, Arizona. He did it for a school project, and received an “A” for his efforts. He was immediately drawn to the process of telling stories on film, and knew that moviemaking would be his life’s work.

He attended film school at the University of Arizona and began his career making movies in the Tucson desert, typically Westerns. He re-located to southern California, and has since worked in visual effects on big budget Hollywood films such as Titanic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He was also an executive in charge of special effects for Disney. While working on the third Lord of the Rings film,The Return of the King, he had the opportunity to do second unit directing (without principal actors). For Greater Glory, which told the story of Mexico’s Cristero War in the 1920s, was Wright’s debut as director.

In a recent interview with CWR, Wright reflected on the success of For Greater Glory, working as a Christian in Hollywood, and plans for Kingdom Come, a special effects film telling the story of the public ministry of Jesus Christ.

CWR: What is life like in the film industry? Is it stressful? Demanding?

Wright: Yes, it’s both on multiple levels. You have to find work and feed your family; sometimes you have jobs that take you away from home for a long time. And, there are many pressures when you’re working on projects. [Laughing] I think you have to be crazy to do it.

Most people can make a decent salary as a member of a film crew, but no one gets rich doing it. You also risk being out of work for two or three months at a time. People working in television, for example, have periods of down time and there is no guarantee that they’ll get work again. You get used to saving as much money as you can when you’re working to cover your expenses when you’re not. You may read stories about this or that Hollywood celebrity making lavish amounts of money and buying expensive homes and cars, but that’s not most of us. We’re hard-working people raising families.

CWR: How did you get the opportunity to direct For Greater Glory?

Continue reading on the CWR site.

Arguing Well by Avoiding the Genetic Fallacy

2013-06-06T11:26:00-07:00

Arguing Well by Avoiding the Genetic Fallacy | Mark P. Shea | CWR

Fixating on who uttered an idea or argument can distract us from whether or not it is true or false.

It is often said that faith (and, if comes to that, culture) is “caught, not taught.” A massive amount of what we believe most deeply comes to us, not from engagement in abstract arguments about ethics, philosophy, or theology, but from somebody we love. Indeed, the inadequacy of the mere intellect against the volcanic forces of the heart is a well-known principle we all understand in practice. As C.S. Lewis said:

No justification of virtue will enable a man to be virtuous. Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism. I had sooner play cards against a man who was quite skeptical about ethics, but bred to believe that “a gentleman does not cheat,” than against an irreproachable moral philosopher who had been brought up among sharpers.

We are social animals and our habit of imprinting on somebody we trust, of forming tribal bonds, of having faith in those we love and distrust of those we dislike is an enormously powerful feature built-in at the baby factory. Before you ever learn about abstract ethics at school, you know in your bones that you’d trust your Uncle George with your life, that the Hatfields are dirty lying cheats that decent people don’t trust as far they can throw them, that Mama has never lied to you and that Father Malone may be a gruff old coot but he’s a saint and the salt of the earth. We learn what we love and hate in very large measure from the fact that people we love find certain things lovable and other things loathsome.

Those people, by the way, need not be real. Fictional characters from Mr. Micawber to Innocent Smith to Frodo Baggins to Captain Kirk can be deep taproots of moral formation for us. Ronald Moore, a writer who created the Battlestar Galactica reboot, remarks that in growing up watching Star Trek, he deeply internalized the conviction that Kirk, Bones, and Spock were simply what decent people look like as they go about meeting and overcoming challenges. Similarly, I sometimes tell people that about 95 percent of my Catholic moral formation came, not from the Catechism or from homilies or teachings on doctrine, but from two hugely important sources that I think every parent should steep their children in: Twilight Zone re-runs and The Lord of the Rings. Both deeply ingrained in my bones the conviction that however tempting it may be, nothing good can come of doing evil in order to try to achieve some good and that faithfulness in the face of such temptation is rewarded.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

"It's awesome": Creative Minority Report praises new Joseph Pearce book

2013-06-05T15:41:37-07:00

From Matthew Archbold on his Creative Minority Report site, in praise of Joseph Pearce's new book, Shakespeare on Love: Seeing the Catholic Presence in Romeo and Juliet (Ignatius Press, 2013):

I've never written a book but I imagine it's pretty hard work and then to see some dopey blogger critiquing it by saying he liked it but (insert any old dumb complaint here,) just seems nasty. So I'm telling you all this to tell you that I don't write reviews with "buts." Either I'm all in or I'm silent. So here's my but-less review of Joseph Pearce's "Shakespeare on Love:"

It's awesome. I feel smart for having read it and that takes a lot for a guy like me. I've read Romeo and Juliet a few times and always felt that there was something missing from the interpretations I've read. I mean, I always knew that Shakespeare wasn't holding them up as models of great love. But Joseph Pearce brilliantly points out what I've been missing. Heck, not only me but pretty much most modern interpretations of the play.

The book doesn't go into a lot of rigmarole trying to prove Shakespeare's Catholicism because Pearce already did that in previous books. So if you're willing to assume Shakespeare was at least a fairly serious Catholic (which you should) then Pearce's most recent work takes that into his analysis of the play.

And I hate even saying "analysis" of the play because that sounds all high falutin and stuff. This book is brilliant but it's not stuffy. It doesn't sound like Pearce was covered in tweed and smoking a pipe as he wrote it. He may have been for all I know. It just doesn't sound like it.

Read the entire review. You can also read the Prologue to the book on Insight Scoop.

Pope Francis focuses on environment, creation, relationships, "culture of waste"

2013-06-05T14:53:41-07:00

A combination of pictures shows Pope Francis catching a rosary thrown by someone in the crowd as he arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican June 5, 2013. (CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters) (June 5, 2013)

Here is a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s catechesis:

Catechesis

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today I want to focus on the issue of the environment, which I have already spoken of on several occasions. Today we also mark World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations, which sends a strong reminder of the need to eliminate the waste and disposal of food.

When we talk about the environment, about creation, my thoughts turn to the first pages of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, which states that God placed man and woman on earth to cultivate and care for it (cf. 2:15). And the question comes to my mind: What does cultivating and caring for the earth mean? Are we truly cultivating and caring for creation? Or are we exploiting and neglecting it? The verb "to cultivate" reminds me of the care that the farmer has for his land so that it bear fruit, and it is shared: how much attention, passion and dedication! Cultivating and caring for creation is God’s indication given to each one of us not only at the beginning of history; it is part of His project; it means nurturing the world with responsibility and transforming it into a garden, a habitable place for everyone. Benedict XVI recalled several times that this task entrusted to us by God the Creator requires us to grasp the rhythm and logic of creation. But we are often driven by pride of domination, of possessions, manipulation, of exploitation; we do not “care” for it, we do not respect it, we do not consider it as a free gift that we must care for. We are losing the attitude of wonder, contemplation, listening to creation; thus we are no longer able to read what Benedict XVI calls "the rhythm of the love story of God and man." Why does this happen? Why do we think and live in a horizontal manner, we have moved away from God, we no longer read His signs.

But to "cultivate and care" encompasses not only the relationship between us and the environment, between man and creation, it also regards human relationships. The Popes have spoken of human ecology, closely linked to environmental ecology. We are living in a time of crisis: we see this in the environment, but above all we see this in mankind. The human person is in danger: this is certain, the human person is in danger today, here is the urgency of human ecology! And it is a serious danger because the cause of the problem is not superficial but profound: it is not just a matter of economics, but of ethics and anthropology. The Church has stressed this several times, and many say, yes, that's right, it's true ... but the system continues as before, because it is dominated by the dynamics of an economy and finance that lack ethics. Man is not in charge today, money is in charge, money rules. God our Father did not give the task of caring for the earth to money, but to us, to men and women: we have this task! Instead, men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and consumption: it is the "culture of waste." If you break a computer it is a tragedy, but poverty, the needs, the dramas of so many people end up becoming the norm. If on a winter’s night, here nearby in Via Ottaviano, for example, a person dies, that is not news. If in so many parts of the world there are children who have nothing to eat, that's not news, it seems normal. It cannot be this way! Yet these things become the norm: that some homeless people die of cold on the streets is not news. In contrast, a ten point drop on the stock markets of some cities, is a tragedy. A person dying is not news, but if the stock markets drop ten points it is a tragedy! Thus people are disposed of, as if they were trash.

This "culture of waste" tends to become the common mentality that infects everyone. Human life, the person is no longer perceived as a primary value to be respected and protected, especially if poor or disabled, if not yet useful - such as the unborn child - or no longer needed - such as the elderly. This culture of waste has made us insensitive even to the waste and disposal of food, which is even more despicable when all over the world, unfortunately, many individuals and families are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Once our grandparents were very careful not to throw away any leftover food. Consumerism has led us to become used to an excess and daily waste of food, to which, at times, we are no longer able to give a just value, which goes well beyond mere economic parameters. We should all remember, however, that throwing food away is like stealing from the tables of the the poor, the hungry! I encourage everyone to reflect on the problem of thrown away and wasted food to identify ways and means that, by seriously addressing this issue, are a vehicle of solidarity and sharing with the needy.

A few days ago, on the Feast of Corpus Christi, we read the story of the miracle of the loaves: Jesus feeds the crowd with five loaves and two fishes. And the conclusion of the piece is important: " They all ate and were satisfied. And when the leftover fragments were picked up, they filled twelve wicker baskets" (Lk 9:17). Jesus asks his disciples not to throw anything away: no waste! There is this fact of twelve baskets: Why twelve? What does this mean? Twelve is the number of the tribes of Israel, which symbolically represent all people. And this tells us that when food is shared in a fair way, with solidarity, when no one is deprived, every community can meet the needs of the poorest. Human ecology and environmental ecology walk together.

So I would like us all to make a serious commitment to respect and protect creation, to be attentive to every person, to counter the culture of waste and disposable, to promote a culture of solidarity and of encounter. Thank you.

Summary in English

Dear Brothers and Sisters: Our Audience today coincides with World Environment Day, and so it is fitting to reflect on our responsibility to cultivate and care for the earth in accordance with God’s command (cf. Gen 2:15). We are called not only to respect the natural environment, but also to show respect for, and solidarity with, all the members of our human family. These two dimensions are closely related; today we are suffering from a crisis which is not only about the just management of economic resources, but also about concern for human resources, for the needs of our brothers and sisters living in extreme poverty, and especially for the many children in our world lacking adequate education, health care and nutrition. Consumerism and a “culture of waste” have led some of us to tolerate the waste of precious resources, including food, while others are literally wasting away from hunger. I ask all of you to reflect on this grave ethical problem in a spirit of solidarity grounded in our common responsibility for the earth and for all our brothers and sisters in the human family.

Greeting:

I offer an affectionate greeting to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience, including those from England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Singapore and the United States. God bless you all!

A Sure Guide to St. Augustine’s Thought and Theology

2013-06-04T22:04:08-07:00

A Sure Guide to St. Augustine’s Thought and Theology | Jared Ortiz | Catholic World Report

A review of Matthew Levering’s new book, The Theology of Augustine: An Introductory Guide to His Most Important Works

It is often said that Augustine is the most “modern” of all the Church Fathers. Whatever one means by “modern,” it is certainly true that Augustine still speaks to us today, even though he is separated from us by 16 centuries. When, for example, Augustine speaks about our restless hearts or when he relates how he prayed to receive chastity and continence, “but not yet,” we know that this is a man of deep feeling who has “been there,” and we know we can trust him. Augustine the sinner, the searcher, the convert who doesn’t settle for easy answers—this is a man who speaks to our experience.

Lover of beauty

Perhaps Augustine resonates so much with us today because he was a profound lover: he loved women, he loved his friends, he loved wisdom, and, finally, he channeled this love toward God. The mature Augustine prays,

Continue reading on the CWR site.

The Idea of a Catholic Society

2013-06-03T16:09:31-07:00

The Idea of a Catholic Society | James Kalb | Catholic World Report

What would it mean for society and its institutions, including government, to become Catholic?

At the close of the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI noted that the Council had displayed an unparalleled desire “to know, to draw near to, to understand, to penetrate, serve and evangelize the society in which she lives.” That desire reflected a constant goal of the Church, to make her message effective by bringing it to men where they are. Modern man had become centered on himself, so perhaps the Church could reach him, and start the process that would eventually bring him to God, by joining in the concerns and movements of the day.

It’s been a bumpy ride, and some have suggested course corrections. The journey is not over, though, and to the extent the Church does reach and persuade people, they will become closer to her. As men are, so are their institutions, so ultimate success of the Second Vatican Council would mean that society and its institutions become Catholic. That should be no surprise, since the Council reaffirmed “traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ.”

But what would it mean for society and its institutions, including government, to become Catholic? The idea seems silly and wrong to many people. However things may have seemed fifty or a hundred years ago, it now seems ridiculous to speak of such a thing. Here in the West we’re losing whatever public influence we once had, and if we manage to stay legal while retaining our doctrines and something of our way of life we’ll be doing well for ourselves.

Beyond such immediate practicalities, many people have raised basic objections to the idea of a Catholic society. All societies are unjust, they say, so no society can be Christian. If a society claims to be Christian, then Christianity and power become entangled and Christianity becomes corrupted. Also, not everyone is Catholic, and that situation won’t change, so a Catholic public order would unjustly force a particular religion on those who disagree with it. And past societies that have called themselves Catholic have put most of their efforts into other and less lofty goals. So the idea is impractical, tyrannical, and hypocritical by its very nature. The Constantinian idea of a Catholic empire was a bad one, and good riddance to it.

Continue reading on the CWR site.