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Artists discuss the colorful catechism behind their creations that reflect faith and history. “In general, the faithful in the United States have rediscovered the rich tradition of stained glass. When they compare it to the last 50 years, they find many of our churches wanting,” Duncan Stroik, award-winning architect, author and professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame, told the Register. “It is consistent with their preferences in architecture and liturgy.” “Modern has been out — anything that smacks of the ’50, ’60s, ’70s. No one seems interested in reviving any of that,” agreed Joseph Beyer, artist and president of the Beyer Stained Glass Studio (BeyerStudio.com) in Philadelphia. “The Munich school windows retain popularity because they are so beautiful and mesh so well...

Shane should prove to be a perfect choice for your next family movie night. Hollywood is not lacking movies about courage; it is, however, desperately lacking films about fortitude. The wise man knows the difference: while courage may or may not involve love, St. Augustine clarifies that fortitude is “love bearing all things readily for the sake of the object beloved.” Augustine’s teacher, St. Ambrose, provides us with an even clearer picture: Fortitude is not lacking in courage, for alone she defends the honor of the virtues and guards their behests. She it is that wages an inexorable war on all vice, undeterred by toil, brave in face of dangers, steeled against pleasures, unyielding to lusts, avoiding covetousness as a deformity that weakens virtue. In 1953, George Stevens produced a mov...

Happy Friday friends, I’ve been on vacation this week and made a real effort not to check the daily bolletini, obsess over my inbox, or get drawn into the usual online madness of social media. I think I have mostly succeeded. I made less successful efforts to stay off my phone, but I still think I resisted more temptations than not. Of course, things have kept on happening. So here’s a look at what I missed. Share The Nicaraguan Diocese of Matagalpa announced early Friday morning that the National Police have raided the diocesan chancery, taking Bishop Rolando Álvarez into custody.  According to witnesses, police and paramilitary officers entered the chancery building at around 3:00 am, taking the bishop and others in the house to an undisclosed location, in a caravan of eight police ...

The media spread the word beyond Newark, until it eventually reached Dr. Charles D. Wrege, a Newark native and respected assistant professor in the Department of Management at Rutgers University with a longstanding interest in parapsychology. After hearing about the curious case, he jumped at the chance to potentially interact with an actual poltergeist, German for “noisy spirits.” Researchers and professionals in the field had begun to refer formally to such phenomena as Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis, or RSPK. Reports of objects moving, seemingly at random, had been claimed for centuries, and linked to larger supernatural occurrences. In one case from 1846, witnesses and scientists observed a girl who, as she entered a room, would cause objects to scatter “as though physically shove...

COMMENTARY: ‘How is it that the billions of stars live in such harmony,’ Aquinas asked, ‘when most men can barely go a minute without declaring war in their minds?’ The philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas is highly systematic, profound, mystical and elaborate, and was recorded in the 13th century. In a word, it is “formidable.” And yet, Aquinas is the master par excellence of common sense. His philosophy has a remarkable affinity with the human mind and the organs of sensation. His philosophy is to the human mind what Bach’s music is to the ear or what the sculptures of Michelangelo are to the eye. He is the Angelic Doctor, but he is down-to-earth. Jacques Maritain was the foremost proponent of Thomism in the 20th century. For him, Aquinas was not just another interesting thinker, but “the th...

With the recent article in The Atlantic linking the Rosary to extremist gun culture we see a gross misunderstanding in the nature of spiritual warfare and its true target, Satan. The rosary is a weapon, but a spiritual one. While it is possible that the author simply misunderstands our allegorical references to warfare, I rather doubt he is that dumb. Rather, I suspect that this is an attempt to stereotype, and vilify Catholics, especially traditional ones. These are tactics used to lay a groundwork for the marginalization and persecution of the faithful and the criminalization of their views.  With this incident, we do well to review the stages of persecution.  The term “stages” is particularly important in the U.S. because it is rare for a previously respected segment of the po...

The document says nothing about the number of participants in the surveys that were to be part of the worldwide synodal process.  In Germany, the “number of faithful who participated in the survey on the World Synod of Bishops in the dioceses” had been only “in the lowest single-digit percentage,” reported CNA Deutsch. “In Switzerland, the debates and the synodal questionnaires raised awareness of the importance of baptism for the life of the Church,” the bishops said.  “It was emphasized that a synodal church increasingly recognizes ‘the royal, priestly and prophetic dignity and vocation’ of the baptized.” Two points, in particular, were emphasized, namely “overcoming the experience that many people are excluded f...

Listen to this story: ROME – Germany’s bishops now have delivered to Rome the long-awaited results of their “synodal path,” a controversial national consultation of the country’s Catholics, and anyone with a passing familiarity with German Catholicism over recent decades won’t find many surprises. In broad strokes, Germany’s Catholics seem to want more empowerment of laity, especially women, including a say in the selection of pastors and bishops as well as a preaching role for lay people. They also favor greater tolerance for disagreement with official church teaching on hot-button issues such as contraception, gay marriage, celibacy and women’s ordination. Calls for such changes are linked to declines in both Mass attendance and church membership, with the suggestion being that German Ca...

Detail from “Christ and the Rich Young Ruler” (1889) by Heinrich Hofmann (WikiCommons) Having reviewed the republication of Henri de Lubac’s book The Church: Paradox and Mystery, I had to accept that space constraints prevented me from discussing at more length a part of the text that moved me greatly. And that was de Lubac’s insistence that the only real reform of the Church happens when God raises up saints appropriate to the age. De Lubac then noted that it is impossible to guess in advance what kinds of saints the Holy Spirit will raise up in our own time. Nevertheless, de Lubac said that there are some things we can definitively say about what a saint is and is not, which will be applicable in every age. What follows is my attempt to do his insights justice, with an eye on...

“All I want is to know the truth, to know and experience God. I’m a searcher.” It has been 45 years since Elvis Presley checked out of Heartbreak Hotel.  On Aug. 16, 1977, as night fell on Memphis, Tennessee, Presley was found dead.  He was just 42 years old.  As the news of the death spread around the world, the overriding emotion beyond shock at so untimely a passing was one of sadness. For all Presley’s success and acclaim, there was something about him that remained unfulfilled, incomplete. For a man who had been held up to the world as an incarnation of the American dream, his end — he was found sprawled unconscious on a bathroom floor — seemed to belie this.  His worldly success in all its forms brought him no peace, seemingly little happiness, no joy. The teenage...

Entering a Catholic Church for the very first time, Michael did not know what to expect. There was a visible fear across his face because he had been searching for direction and meaning in his life having dabbled in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Atheism, and ultimately a non-denominational community of believers. He was hoping to find acceptance and refuge from a world he had come to realize did not offer the answers of hope and love he was searching for. In every religion he encountered, the emphasis was a turning inward toward the self, a self-actualization and realization that he somehow will find his own solitude and peace by simply addressing his own needs. Though the non-denominational community he had associated with did offer him an opportunity to develop an initial faith in God and ...

Have you ever heard of St. Michael’s Lent? St. Michael’s Lent dates back to the 13th century when St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14). The tradition, described in The Little Flowers of St. Francis by St. Bonaventure, honors Our Lady and St. Michael. Much like a ‘mini-Lent,’ the devotion lasts 40 days (excluding Sundays). This period of prayer, fasting, and penance begins on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Aug. 15) and ends on the feast of St. Michael (Sept. 29.) [See also: Follow ChurchPOP’s Telegram Channel!] St. Francis had a great devotion to St. Michael, and practiced this 40-day period himself.  “[H]e wished along with the most faithful Brothers…to celebrate the Assumption of...