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Let us cut to the chase: The American dream has killed Catholic discipleship…..
Let us cut to the chase…The American dream has killed Catholic discipleship. Not only do I believe the argument bears consideration, but I believe we will never truly win the nation to Jesus until we realize we can’t live as everyone else does and at the same time be Catholic disciples that please our Lord. Let us start with identifying the American Dream. The phrase was coined by James Truslow Adams, when he wrote: “But there has been also the American dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream ...
In Bahrain, Pope Francis Tells Catholics on the Arabian Peninsula to Be Bold in Proclaiming the Gospel…
“Yet, in the depths of the soul, in the intimacy of the heart, there flows the calm and silent fresh water of the Spirit, who refreshes our deserts and restores life to what is parched, who washes away all that soils us and quenches our thirst for happiness.” Christians are a small minority in Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf. More than 70% of the total population — 1.5 million — is Muslim, while there are only about 161,000 Catholics living in the country, according to 2020 Vatican statistics. Sacred Heart Church was built in 1939 on land donated by Bahrain’s ruler, Sheikh Haman bin Isa Al Khalifa. It was the first Catholic Church built in the Persian Gulf, and is located in Manama, Bahrain’s capital and largest city, which has a population of around 200,000. During the week...
Sex talk, a modest proposal, and I want to break free…
Happy Friday friends, I’m more or less on the road from now until the USCCB meeting. Some of it is the boring business stuff JD and I have to be in the same place for every couple of months. But most of it is hunting up a story I’ve been working to get for… well, quite a while. We’ll see if it comes through this time or not. For the moment, I’m mostly in withdrawal from the hourly dopamine hits from our baby to which I have grown ferociously addicted. But even before I became a father, solo travel was already losing a little of its savor for me. I don’t know if it’s a sign of encroaching middle age, however that is defined these days. More likely, I think it is as simple as this: I really just enjoy being at home. I am, as I have said here before, extremely lucky that I get to do the work ...
St. Charles Borromeo, Pray For Us!…
SAINTS & ART: St. Charles Borromeo did more by age 24 than most do all their lives. St. Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) was a key figure for Catholicism in the 16th century, even if he lived only to age 46. He was archbishop of Milan (one of the most important bishoprics in northern Italy), a cardinal, papal secretary of state and leader of the Counter-Reformation. He started out with the equivalent of a 16th-century silver spoon in his mouth. His father was a count married to a daughter of the Medicis. His uncle was Pope Pius IV. Both probably out of familial religious commitment and because Charles was his second son and so not immediately in the line of succession, his father agreed to his receiving tonsure — admission to the clerical state — at 12. Charles began his studies (one...
This Sunday, our situation is hopeless. Except for one thing…..
Jesus, St. Paul, and the seven martyr brothers of Second Maccabees all have the same message on the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Our situation is hopeless — except for one thing. Family love is ultimately hopeless; it’s great, but temporary. Trusting in our neighbors is hopeless; it’s our job to serve them, but we might get persecution in return. And political victory is hopeless; those who look to politics for salvation end up crushed by their political opponents (or their political friends, for that matter). In fact, there is only one hope, and at first it might seems a far-fetched hope: the resurrection of the body. In the Gospel, the Sadducees try to make the very idea of the resurrection of the dead seem absurd. Jesus answers by pointing out that an earth-bound existence is absurd. I...
President Biden, Archbishop Paglia, and the mortification of the Church…
No one who has worked in Washington for more than four decades, as I have, can possibly imagine Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., as one of the sharper knives in the drawer. Even in the retrospect of 31 years, his attempt to instruct future-Justice Clarence Thomas in natural law theory during Thomas’s confirmation hearings is still cringe-inducing. He self-destructed in several presidential campaigns because of verbal gaffes (and plagiarism). Any honest telling of his success in gaining the 2020 Democratic nomination will concede that he was more-or-less anointed because of fears that Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist who honeymooned in Cold War Moscow, would drive the party over the cliff. Today, it’s obvious to anyone with the slightest knowledge of geriatric medicine that Mr. Biden is co...
These asteroid surveys are on the hunt for ‘city killers’…
This week, astronomers announced the discovery of three previously unknown near-Earth asteroids that had been hiding in the glare of the Sun — and one of them is a giant. At nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across, it is big enough to cause planet-wide destruction if it hit the Earth, though it won’t come anywhere close enough to be a threat for a hundred years or so. The search for potentially hazardous asteroids like this one has ramped up in recent years, with multiple ongoing efforts to identify and catalog large space rocks passing close by. From twilight observations from the ground to space-based telescopes peering into hard-to-see regions of the sky, these programs are focused on identifying potentially dangerous asteroids as early as possible. The goal is to make sure that we ...
Catholics Travel From Saudi Arabia to Attend Pope Francis’ Stadium Mass in Bahrain…
Catholic foreign workers living in Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates also traveled for the Mass. Pope Francis arrived to cheers at Bahrain’s national soccer stadium as he greeted the enthusiastic crowd from the popemobile. In his homily, the pope repeated the words of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Pope Francis said that Jesus “suffers when he sees in our own day and in many parts of the world, ways of exercising power that feed on oppression and violence, seeking to expand their own space by restricting that of others, imposing their own domination and restricting basic freedoms, and in this way oppressing the weak.” More in Middle East – Africa In the face of the oppression and enmity that exist today, the...
Listen to the Communion of Saints…
This week’s twin celebrations – All Saints and All Souls – provide an occasion to step back from our current circumstances in the Church and the world, and to view things against a broader horizon. More than a distant constellation of moral exemplars, more than even a host of intercessors pleading for us before the Throne of Grace, the Communion of Saints is what awaits each one of us whose salvation has been won through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The glorious diversity of saints is perfected in, even as it reflects, the splendor of the Triune God in whose life they now share in full. If beatitude is what we were made for, our ultimate destination and goal, the commemoration of All Souls is a reminder that the way is narrow. The souls in Purgatory will go to Heaven. But even as we pray...
Taylor Swift, miscarriage, and the discussions we too rarely have…
In every life, there comes a moment where we find ourselves brought to our knees, a moment when we are immersed in something tragic and personally gutting, and our questions seem unending. It is a “rubber meets the road” moment, when even people of faith will ask themselves whether they truly believe all they proclaim and people who say they have no faith find themselves casting out pleas to heaven. When a popular artist seems to be saying he or she has met such a moment, fans notice. Ever since the Beatles took the then-unprecedented step of printing their lyrics on the back cover of their “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” included lyrics have helped a listener to quickly become familiar enough with a new song to embrace its mood and message for one’s own. For some, a close examina...
NPR Airs Recording of Woman’s Abortion: ‘What Hell Sounds Like’…
National pro-life leaders responded to the NPR segment. “My prayer is often that the truth about abortion is ‘brought into the light’ but nothing prepared me for what this audio recording of an abortion would sound like,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini tweeted. “What’s happening here is the taking of an innocent human life. Heartbreaking. No words.” Live Action President Lila Rose emphasized, “This is what Hell sounds like.” As president of Students for Life of America, Kristan Hawkins added on Twitter: “I hope the disgusted NPR listeners will never forget this sound and #voteprolifefirst on Tuesday. More in US SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser also brought up the midterm elections in response to NPR’s segment. “Exposure to the harsh reality ...
Eyewitness Accounts of Encounters With Ghosts From Purgatory…
Do Catholics believe in ghosts? Absolutely! Ghosts, defined as disembodied, human spirits (as opposed to angels), are one of the ways we know about purgatory (though it is also revealed by God). Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, coming out of the great thirteenth century, became one of the most popular books of the Middle Ages. You can think of it as an earlier version of Butler’s Lives of the Saints. We tend to think of a legend as something fictitious, but legenda simply meant something to be read. Some do accuse Voragine, however, of indulging in things we would consider legendary (which may have contributed to the modern meaning of the word). In terms of Catholic ghosts, we recognize that we have contact with those in the Communion of Saints. Not only do saints appear to us occasion...
