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‘Let down your nets!’ — In 2001, John Paul II spelled out this 5-step plan for our times…..
Each of the steps is surprisingly simple and the results will be great. Jesus has promised. “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Those words of Jesus Christ were also favorites of St. John Paul II, and 20 years ago, he got very practical about what they should mean for us in our time. He gave a very specific plan for the years that would follow the year 2000, and promised it would bring the same result as it did for Simon: “When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish.” The Church has had a tough 20 years since then. St. John Paul spelled out his plan in the 2001 Apostolic Letter “At the Beginning of the Millennium.” Disaster followed. First came 9/11, which turned many people against religion; then came the scandals, which turned many people aga...
The Baltimore Ravens’ record-setting kicker Justin Tucker is a devout Catholic. Listen to him sing Schubert’s Ave Maria… …
NFL player Justin Tucker set an amazing record on Sun., Sept. 26. The 31-year-old Baltimore Ravens player set the NFL record for kicking the longest fieldgoal ever – 66 yards! Did you know he is also a devout Catholic and an opera singer? The talented professional athlete makes the Sign of the Cross before every kick to “give glory” to God and “say ‘thanks’ for the opportunity.” He also helped raise money for Catholic Charities at a 2016 concert, and sang the Ave Maria at 2015 opera concert. ChurchPOP posted the 2016 concert in a previous article. However, the Baltimore Ravens published an extended cut featuring an interview with the kicker. Here’s the video below: Click here if you cannot see the video above. He also describes his Catholic faith in the video below: [embedded content] ...
Canonization cause advances for Cyprien and Daphrose Rugumba, married couple killed in Rwandan genocide…
A married couple killed at the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide is moving one step closer to canonization. Daphrose and Cyprien Rugumba. Copyright Emmanuel Community Archives. Share The diocesan inquiry into the lives of Cyprien and Daphrose Rugumba concluded last week. If canonized, the couple will become the first Rwandan saints. The couple is known for their humanitarian efforts and their work with the Emmanuel Community, which is promoting their story. Cyprien studied at a Catholic seminary as a young man. However, he was scandalized by some of the behavior of the seminarians there and discouraged by encountering anti-Catholic philosophers. He left the seminary and fell away from the Catholic faith, going on to establish a successful career working for the Rwandan government to prese...
What does God do when I sin?
Awareness of your sins I argue is perhaps one of the most valuable charisms a person can possess. The ability to renounce sinful behavior and embrace an active relationship with Jesus Christ is what St. Paul would describe as the way not be conformed to this world but instead be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.[1] The first time my youngest daughter recognized that she had committed a sin, there was a very long drawn out pause, her face in disbelief and her eyes swelling up at the very thought that she had just offended God. It was important that my daughter understood three things, first, Jesus came to save us from our sins, two, sin has no authority over her through the grace of Jesus Chris...
Everything your friends know about Galileo is wrong — here’s how to set the record straight…
Galileo did not prove that the Earth moves. He did not invent the telescope. He was not excommunicated, tortured or burned. So where do these ideas originate? We got “Galileo hate mail” here at the Vatican’s astronomical observatory. It was funny — and not funny. It originated, and originates, in respectable places. And it speaks to the broader problem of truth today. The “mail” was social media comments. This spring our new web site, VaticanObservatory.org, received some media coverage (the National Catholic Register covered it). That coverage brought us to the eyes of some who could not reconcile the Vatican Observatory’s centuries of scientific work with the story of Galileo. They left comments claiming that Catholics used to “barbeque” people for doing science, and so on. It was ...
With support of 64% of voters, Switzerland becomes world’s 30th country to approve same-sex marriage…
Switzerland’s Catholic bishops said in December that legalizing same-sex marriage was “fraught with numerous administrative, legal and ethical difficulties.” GENEVA, Switzerland — Switzerland voted Sunday to legalize same-sex marriage. Around 64% of voters backed the measure in a referendum on Sept. 26, making Switzerland the world’s 30th country to approve gay marriage. The country bordering Italy, France, Germany, Austria, and Liechtenstein has recognized civil unions for same-sex couples since 2007, following a 2005 referendum. In December 2020, the Swiss parliament approved a bill, called “Marriage for All,” legalizing same-sex marriage and introduced it into the Swiss Civil Code. In April this year, Campaigners gathered enough signatures to secure a referendum. More than 6...
The body and the mystery of prayer…
If Christian prayer plummets dim but real reflections of eternal glory in the passing shadows of the world, it is because God has fashioned the world to contain mysteries beyond what is material and visible. By faith, everything becomes a sacrament that gives us God – even the most painful circumstances. Without faith, the human heart cannot ponder the uncreated love that sings in the silences of created things. Naked reason is deaf to the symphony that lifts up the heavens and the earth. Only faith hears the deeper harmonies of this life and sees visible signs of grace in those mysteries reason fails to grasp. Eyes opened in childlike wonder find icons through which heaven gazes on us. Our bodies are themselves part of this sacramental mystery. The meaning of our very physiolo...
What proponents of bodily autonomy miss…
(Blue Planet Studio/Getty Images) The gratification of our desires must end where the commodification of human beings begins. The discussion surrounding surrogacy is a fraught one. With all that is wrong in the world, one might wonder why we should take issue with distressed people using science and mutually beneficial market arrangements to orchestrate a goal as human and wholesome as parenthood. Buttressing this position, Ella Whelan argues in The Critic UK that commercial surrogacy cannot be banned without sacrificing female autonomy. Advertisement Advertisement Whelan attributes much of the desire to limit commercial surrogacy to a knee-jerk aversion to the wrenching reality of gestating a child only to give that child away. But that it is unpalatable, she writes, is not sufficient to ...
Cardinal Burke Provides Update on His Recovery From COVID-19…
Cardinal Burke credited God for his survival, which, at times, seemed uncertain. LA CROSSE, Wisc. — Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke updated his followers on his recovery from COVID-19 and thanked them for their prayers in a letter published late Sunday evening, saying it will be “several more weeks” until he will be ready to return to his normal activities. “Thanking you once again, with all my heart, for your faithful and generous prayers for the recovery of my health, I write to update you on the progress of my rehabilitation,” said Cardinal Burke in the letter titled “Letter to Those Who are Praying for Me.” “In thanking you, I thank, above all, Our Lord, who, in answer to your prayers, has preserved me in life. I thank, too, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and all the Saints through who...
Rome’s great, savage divide will be played out again tonight…
Listen to this article ROME – From the outside, it’s often assumed that the fundamental division in the Vatican runs between friends and foes of Pope Francis. That’s a fallacy for two reasons: 1) Tensions around Francis’s reforms generally are more nuanced than outright support or opposition, and 2) Most people in the Vatican don’t really care about such matters anyway. I guarantee you that the guy pumping gas at the Vatican’s filling station, or the lady giving you your greens in the Vatican grocery store, aren’t coming to work thinking about the pope’s latest motu proprio (unless it involves their salaries or pensions.) There is, however, a genuine laceration in the Vatican just like all of Rome, unyielding and savage, where “nuance” never applies. Especially for those who hail from Rome...
Will souls in Hell receive resurrected bodies too?
The Catholic Church teaches that all will receive a resurrected body, which could accentuate the suffering of Hell. While the Church often highlights the glorious resurrection of the body for those in Heaven, we sometimes forget what will happen to any who choose to go to Hell. They too will receive a resurrected body, but not in the same way as those in Heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this teaching. Who will rise? All the dead will rise, “those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” CCC 998 Fr. William Saunders expands on this belief in an article about the Resurrection of the Dead from the Arlington Catholic Herald. What about the resurrected bodies of the souls of the damned in hell? The...
Remains of Father Emil Kapaun, Medal of Honor recipient and possible future saint, returned to Kansas…
His remains were formally returned to his family in a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, and a “send off Mass” was celebrated in Honolulu Sept. 23 ahead of his journey back to Kansas. Born April 20, 1916 in Pilsen, Kapaun grew up on a farm. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Wichita June 9, 1940, and began at the U.S. Army Chaplain School at Ft. Devins four years later. Kapaun was sent to serve troops overseas, and was promoted to Captain in January 1946. His first stint of active duty ended in July of that year, but he re-enlisted and returned to active duty in 1948 at Ft. Bliss. In January 1950, Kapaun was sent to Japan as a chaplain in the 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. In July 1950, they were sent to Korea. While in Korea, Kapaun regularly celebrated Mass,...
