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If you want to be a saint, you have to be an evangelist. If you want to be an evangelist, you have to be a saint…..
If you want to be a saint, you have to be an evangelistIf you want to be an evangelist, you have to be a saint. Holiness and mission are inseparable. Holiness makes our evangelization credible, believable, and attractive. Evangelization makes our holiness grow as we take on the mission of Christ who was sent to save the world. The two are really parts of one whole life of a disciple. These elements are an integral part of a lifestyle that a disciple is meant to live. EVANGELIZATION WITHOUT HOLINESSI got the evangelization bug as a young adult. Right after my initial conversion, I thought I was going to go out, tell people about Jesus, and then everyone I knew was going to follow him out of sheer momentum. It didn’t happen. They knew me as a partier. They thought it wouldn&#...
Vatican finance trial: Defense says there are ‘omissions’ in video files…
“The deposited material is therefore still incomplete,” they commented. The material included the videotapes of at least five separate interviews with Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, the former director of the administrative office at the Secretariat of State. Perlasca, once a major suspect in Vatican investigations, has not been charged with any crimes since voluntarily submitting himself to extensive questioning in 2020 and earlier this year. According to the defense attorneys’ statement, the videos of Perlasca’s testimony contained “omissions,” which prosecutors said were due to “investigative needs.” Perlasca was Becciu’s former chief deputy at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. In that position, he signed off on aspects of the London real estate purchase at the center of the historic trial, ...
Father Mike Schmitz’s ‘Bible In A Year’ is among Apple’s top podcasts, with a Spanish version due out next year…
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A rose by no other name: on the importance of naming children…
Three (or two?) hard problems This past Saturday, I attended the baptism of a dear friend’s first child. She was Christened (and confirmed) as Phoebe Irene Christine Maria. During the ceremony, I was once again reminded of the importance of names. As a computer programmer, there’s an old joke I always chuckle at, “There are really only 3 hard problems in programming: 1) naming things 2) off-by-one errors.” Luckily, I still only struggle with the first two of those three. Like any good humor, there is an underlying truth here that is being expressed. Why is it difficult to name something? Because, a name is meant to tell us something about the nature of that thing. It is meant to tell us who or what the thing is. In the case of a programmer naming a particular object, the goal is to express...
Influential German lay Catholic reveals the radical goals of the German Synodal Way…
COLOGNE, Germany — The outgoing head of the most influential Catholic lay group in Germany has detailed how he believes the German Synodal Way is geared toward influencing radical changes in the Church and that a well-prepared process is all-important in securing such reform. In a revealing Nov. 3 interview with a German podcaster peppered with strident statements challenging the Church’s established magisterium, Thomas Sternberg, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), said Church reform occurs “as a process” and that “if one doesn’t hold discussions and initiate movements, then there will be no change.” A theologian and member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) political party, Sternberg welcomed the fact that the issue of women priests was b...
President Biden, Pope Francis and canon law…
COMMENTARY: If what Biden says the Holy Father said is true, what they were discussing comes under Canon 916, not 915. What President Joe Biden said that Pope Francis said to him about receiving Holy Communion is both plausible and implausible at the same time. After his meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Oct. 29, President Biden said that Pope Francis had told him that “he was happy that I am a good Catholic and that I should keep receiving Communion.” Given the controversy about whether Biden should be denied Holy Communion due to his support for an expanded and radical abortion license, it was a major news story. It’s possible that Biden did not understand what Pope Francis said, or that he was confused about it, or that he lied about it, but it seems fair to take the statement...
FSSP priest Father James Jackson faces new federal child pornography charges as more details of investigation emerge…
Jackson was present at the rectory when investigators arrived to execute the search warrant, the affidavit states. The priest “was given his Miranda rights and asked to speak with an attorney after learning that detectives were there to investigate offenses related to child pornography,” the affidavit states. Jackson was charged Oct. 30 by state authorities with possession of child pornography, transfer of child pornography, and child erotica prohibited, according to the Rhode Island State Police. In Rhode Island, the charge of “child erotica prohibited” is defined as the production, possession, display, or distribution of “any visual portrayals of minors who are partially clothed, where the visual portrayals are used for the specific purpose of sexual gratification or sexual arousal from ...
Marvel’s ‘Eternal’ problem: The man, the powers that be, and God…
“You cannot go on ‘seeing through’ things forever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too? It is no use trying to ‘see through’ first principles. If you see through everything then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To ‘see through’ all things is the same as not to see.” (C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man) Note: This article contains Eternals spoilers. One of the most enduring raps on the Marvel Cinematic Universe is its villain problem. After more than a dozen years and some 25 films featuring dozens of superheroes, the MCU has produced just two memorable, enduring antagon...
Evangelization can be frustrating, but do not give in to discouragement. Keep evangelizing. And never give up…..
Evangelization can be frustrating, especially when it leads to mockery by others. But do not give in to discouragement. Keep evangelizing. And never give up. Some years back, a Catholic friend asked me if I would speak to her Protestant boyfriend about the Catholic Faith. She was confident I could help him see the truth and beauty of the Faith, so I invited him over for a cup of coffee. There was no trickery on my part: her boyfriend understood why he was coming. A few of his friends came along, although they seemed more interested in playing video games, barely remaining within earshot. The man brought his Bible for reference, and asked if I minded if he referenced it in our discussion. I looked at it and said, “The Holy Bible? Cool. Where did you get it?” After he told me where he bought...
Abortion advocacy, sex contests have no place in Catholic education…
Faithful alumni of Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles are urging signatures on a petition protesting a university-hosted fundraiser for Planned Parenthood this Friday. What kind of lunacy must this be, when the Pope unambiguously calls abortion “murder,” yet a Catholic university hosts a fundraiser to support America’s largest abortion business? Or when students at a Catholic high school walk out in protest of a pro-life speaker? Or Catholic college students compete for numbers of sexual conquests? “Catholic education is an expression of the Church’s mission of salvation and an instrument of evangelization: to make disciples of Christ and to teach them to observe all that he has commanded.” If ever the need for a renewal of truth and fidelity in our Catholic education was mor...
Loyola Marymount University, Catholic university in Los Angeles, to host Planned Parenthood fundraiser Friday night…
“If this were a fundraiser for the KKK, a group seeking to marginalize the homeless, or an anti-immigration group, there is no way it would be tolerated,” Stephenson said. “It is deeply disturbing that the University refuses to extend the same defense of human dignity to the unborn.” The petition calls Planned Parenthoood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, a eugenicist and “virulent anti-black racist,” and highlights the strong condemnations of abortion by Pope Francis, who said, “Is it right to eliminate, to take a human life to solve a problem? Is it right to hire a hitman to solve a problem? That’s what abortion is.” “We hope you see through rationalizations that ‘Planned Parenthood does more than just abortions,’” the petition states. “The mafia also produces olive oil.” The petition ur...
The Loudoun County School Board’s sickening response to sex abuse isn’t news to Catholics…
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated. The school board of Loudoun County, Virginia, shocked the world when its covering for a student rapist became public. Equally appalling was the school board’s treatment of the victim and her father. As someone who has spent the past three years deeply involved in addressing the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal and its equally scandalous cover-up in the Catholic Church, I have just one thing to say to the Loudoun County School Board: Wade right on in, gang. No one feels the slightest bit of sympathy for Catholic leaders who tolerated abuse. No one will feel sympathy for you. Let’s review the issues and compare the two cases: Catholic clergy have a history of adults sexually assaulting minors. Loudoun County Public Sc...
