Center

My dad wasn’t a ‘Fathers Knows Best’ kind of father, but he was the only father I had, and I loved him. I’m a big fan of superhero movies. There is something so compelling about a larger-than-life figure who can run at lightning speed, deflect bullets and save innocent people from the evil machinations of the villain.  When I was growing up, my father was my first glimpse of a hero. Instead of the dramatic garb of movie superheroes, however, he preferred Bermuda shorts and short-sleeved shirts to withstand the harrowing heat of Miami days. He couldn’t scale tall buildings or dodge bullets but was skilled at banishing the monsters that invaded our Miami home.  They weren’t the dragons kids read about in story books, but were instead tropical flying roaches, sometimes called palmet...

Is there a future for Archbishop Pierre’s synodality? Skip to content Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, opened the public session of the bishops’ June meeting with an address on synodality. Two years after Pope Francis inaugurated the global process for the synod on synodality, Pierre told the USCCB in Orlando, “it may be we are still struggling to understand synodality.” “Perhaps it has been hard for us to embody this ‘style of God,’” the nuncio said. “Perhaps ‘the adventure of this journey’ has made us a bit ‘fearful of the unknown,’” he suggested, quoting Pope Francis. Archbishop Christoph Pierre. Image via USCCB.  Share Inviting the U.S. bishops to be more “courageous” and “humble” in their embrace of the synodal process, Pierre also repeated...

Dear Reluctant Potential Dad, So, your wife wants another baby, but you are putting on the brakes. I understand. When I was in graduate school at the University of Notre Dame, my wife Jennifer wanted another baby. We were only making $10,000 a year, and I felt overwhelmed in a demanding graduate program. In fact, I thought I might fail out and destroy my dream of becoming a professor. But my father-in-law Miles insisted that a new baby would also bring new blessings. I wanted to believe him, but I was scared. The fear I had then and you have now is a good sign because it shows that you care about your wife and your child and want to give them your best, to provide for them what they need and what they would like.  What I didn’t realize was that having another child is itself providing...

(OSV News) Parting truly is “such sweet sorrow,” and in this era of anti-heroes, deep irony and unsympathetic characters, I miss “Ted Lasso.” Having found a well-written, brilliantly acted story about people I could actually care about — even if I needed closed captioning to understand most of them — I’ve felt the loss keenly. Reason, and my oxymoronic, increasingly short attention span, both dictate that I should by now have found some new diversion, but this series about a relentlessly upbeat dad-talker and his effect on the people around him is still firing my synapses. Mentally, I revisit it daily and reflexively — the way one’s tongue revisits a missing molar. Except, I know why I lost the molar; no questions there. But of “Ted Lasso” I have questions. The final season left me with th...

Few of the following qualify as “beach reading;” they all qualify as good reading.  In graduate school, I was informed that there was no such thing as “biblical theology,” only textual analysis. Bishop Robert Barron demonstrates what nonsense that was, and is, in The Great Story of Israel: Election, Freedom, Holiness, a book that nourishes both mind and soul.   In The Virtues, John Garvey, former president of the Catholic University of America, shares the wisdom by which he reminded CUA students that genuine “higher education” means “deeper formation” as well as “more information:” the perfect gift to anyone entering college or university this fall.   The culture wars continue. Three recent volumes help prepare 21st-century defenders of the faith for the work ahead...

When my family entered the Church 22 years ago, some of my evangelical friends went out of their way to tell me Catholic horror stories. I hadn’t thought of this for years, but remembered it the other day when I was thrust into the company of evangelical Anglicans. At least one of them had been among the people who two decades ago told me the horror stories. I’m guessing he and they would still tell them if they saw any point to it, but they rarely tell me the stories anymore, on the few occasions we meet. One of the unexpected blessings of having been in the Church this long is that people finally think of you as Catholic. From their point of view, you’re lost for good, like a ship sunk to the bottom of the ocean. For a while, I think, they see new converts as being in what scholars call ...

Finding the perfect pair of eyeglasses or sunglasses to work with your daily style is no longer a challenge. Choose from almost a dozen base frame shapes and lens color options, to create your own unique style. Then with Pair’s innovative top frames, you can effortlessly swap out hundreds of possibilities on the go, allowing you to shake up your everyday look. Not only are these eyeglasses and sunglasses personally customizable and affordable, but for every Pair purchased, a child in need will receive glasses. Get your new favorite Pair today and make a difference. Services Marketplace – Listings, Bookings & Reviews Entertainment blogs & Forums

Skip to content While much of Catholic education has withered for lack of connection to its roots and the water of Christian faith, the Adeodatus Foundation is preparing to nourish many gardens in the desert. Those who want to be part of this movement of renewal might consider a trip to Pasadena later this month. Much of American Catholic education, from primary school to university is, as the late Newton Minow famously opined about television, a vast wasteland. The remarkable system of Catholic parochial schools has itself withered due to a fatal addiction to “relevance” in the form of American Progressive educational dogma and faddish discipline. Whereas once religious brothers and sisters consecrated to the Lord made cheap or even free education possible, the fall-off in religious life ...

> Italiano> English> Español> Français > All the articles of Settimo Cielo in English If you want to receive (or go back to receiving) a notification for every new article, click HERE and subscribe to the Newsletter from Settimo Cielo! * There is only one continent on which Catholicism is not retreating, but expanding: Africa. Five of the ten countries with the highest Mass attendance rates are African. The only seminaries filling up instead of emptying are African. And also from Africa comes the resistance against the current that is driving so many Catholic Churches in the North toward the shores of blessing homosexual couples. In the Anglican Church on this same question it has already come to schism, and there too the numbers are all in the South’s favor. In short, ...

The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) is inviting Catholics to join together in making an act of reparation for the act of “blasphemy” scheduled to take place at Dodgers Stadium on June 16 on the day the Catholic Church celebrates the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, alongside the USCCB, is asking parishes across the country to pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 16 at Mass or during a Holy Hour with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. An act of reparation such as the bishops recommend is offered to the Lord with the intention of repairing the spiritual damage inflicted by sin. This comes after the Los Angeles Dodgers announced they would be honoring the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” an anti-Catholic drag ...

Here is a way to bring the light of Christ to a dark situation. You already know the story of the group the Los Angeles Dodgers are planning to honor on June 16 (the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus). To counter the Dodgers’ contemptuous gesture, the Register would like to hear from you, our readers, about how a religious sister has affected your life in a positive way. A way that has influenced you to become a better person. A way that has helped you overcome a difficult situation. A way that has changed your life. Please share your personal story in the comments section below, or email us [email protected]. (If you email, please include your name, city and phone number to have your contribution considered for possible publication.) Your testimony can surely inspire others...

By Francis X. Maier I want to talk about what we need now: what we need now as Christians; what we need now to renew the presence of Jesus Christ in our personal lives, in our Church, and in our culture. Truth matters, because Somebody famous once said that the truth will make us free; not necessarily comfortable or happy, but free—free to change our thinking, our actions, and our lives. Free to become the men and women God made us to be. Free to be better than we are. We’re all familiar with the human predicament: our genius at screwing things up, and God’s fidelity in forgiving us and helping us try again. We’re each a mixture of clay and spirit, carbon and grace. Which means that realism—Christian realism—is a cocktail of skepticism and hope. Skepticism, because unless we’re really good...