Blog & News
Not Overcome
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never overcome it.
John Wayne, Catholic Convert
My "granddaddy" John Wayne, actor and Catholic convert -- John Wayne, for many, was a Hollywood legend who symbolized true masculinity and American values. To Father Matthew Muñoz, though, he was simply “granddaddy.” “When we were little, we’d go to his house and we’d simply hang out with granddaddy and we’d play and have fun -- a very different image from what most people have of him,” Father Muñoz told the Catholic News Agency (CNA) on a visit to Rome.
Relic Tour
A relic tour currently taking place in the United States highlights the virtues of two English saints who stood up for conscience and paid the ultimate price. The "Witness to Freedom" relic tour is being held in conjunction with the U.S. bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom, which takes place across the nation June 21 - July 4. The fortnight aims to stress the importance of defending religious freedom in the United States and to raise awareness of religious persecution around the world.
Young Nuns
In case you missed it, young nuns are a trend! There is a young and vital presence of religious sisters, novices, and postulants in U.S. Catholic life, a new survey has found. The postulants’ average age is 27, while novices have an average age of 29. Temporary professed sisters have an average age of 32. The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious has released its latest survey of its 120 member communities in 137 U.S. dioceses.
Shedding the Seamless Garment
In some Church circles today, we are seeing a return to the vision of a “seamless garment” or “consistent ethic of life.” Advocates have noble intentions — they want to bring the Church’s moral wisdom and passion for justice to bear on a broad range of urgent issues. They recognize that the Church’s social witness must be founded on our common responsibility to defend the gift of human life at every stage and in every condition. In practice, however, this line of thinking can lead to a kind of moral relativism that renders serious social issues as more or less equivalent.
Worthy of Belief
"The apparitions of Mary of the Holy Rosary of San Nicolás have a supernatural character and are worthy of belief," declared Bishop Héctor Sabatino Cardelli of San Nicolás de los Arroyos in Argentina. “I worked in consultation with experts and witnesses,” Bishop Cardelli said in a homily on 22 May 2016. "I discerned on three specific criteria, namely: Is the event naturally occurring? Could it be the work of the enemy? Is it of supernatural origin? The answers to these questions left me sure that it is real and positive fruit exceeding mere human action.”
Memorial Day 2016
God of power and mercy, you destroy war and put down earthly pride. Banish violence from our midst and wipe away our tears, that we may all deserve to be called your sons and daughters. Keep in your mercy those men and women who have died in the cause of freedom and bring them safely into your kingdom of justice and peace. We ask this though Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Tyranny Denied
Religious freedom-loving Americans can celebrate a crucial win at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, 16 May 2016. The decision unanimously protected the Little Sisters of the Poor from intrusive government fines for not providing contraception to their employees. What had been hoped and prayed for while this case was pending is exactly what the court has now recognized: that the government has no need to force the Little Sisters to provide contraceptive services when they are already widely available to anyone who wants them!
Look to Lincoln
So often these days we read of the ongoing collapse of Catholicism in the West. In diocese after diocese, we see parishes and schools closing or consolidating, a decline in priests as older clergy pass away at rates higher than new ordinations, and a widespread loss of the next generation to either the secular left or the evangelical right. We also read of various plans to counter these trends. Everyone seems to have a program to promote, a new strategy to increase vocations, to increase weekly Mass attendance, to keep teens from fleeing the faith…
Taking Heaven by Storm
We find ourselves today in the midst of a fearful challenge to the inviolable dignity of innocent human life, and the divinely appointed source of human life, the family constituted by the indissoluble, faithful and procreative union of one man and one woman. As Catholics, our most basic moral duty is to defend and foster the inviolable dignity of innocent human life and of its cradle: marriage and the family. The commandments of God calling us to respect our father and mother, and all human life, are written upon our hearts by God from the first moment of our being.