New Advent

Pope Francis speaks on the immigration issue: "It is about, I emphasize, human beings"

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

The Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People gave the pope an opportunity to speak to its participants and make his appeal. The council itself is meeting to discuss a paper, 'Welcoming Christ in Refugees and forcibly displaced Persons', which reflects the Church's pastoral concern over forced migration.

Here's the upshot of the Boy Scouts decision: The Mormons won the day

matt@NULL.COM (Terry Mattingly)

If anything, this vote represents another fascinating step in the ongoing journey of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into the safe mushy middle of American religion, that great shopping mall of the soul. The BSA leaders decided to go with the Mormons, United Methodists and suburban American Catholics. The clear losers? The Southern Baptists and other traditionalist groups, including America’s few truly conservative Catholic parishes. So did anyone out there in mainstream media land pay attention to the religion groups and their role in hosting Scout units? Are you kidding me? This is a legal, cultural and political story.

Looking for a Catholic study group this summer? Here it is. Pull up a lawn chair...

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

Welcome to the first “Lawn Chair Catechism” at CatholicMom.com! This is an opportunity for you to kick back while you study along with us. We’ll be using "Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus" by Sherry Weddell as our basis for this discussion. Every Wednesday morning this summer, from May 29 to August 28, we’ll post a series of discussion questions from our team here at CatholicMom.com. We’ll also have a link-sharing at the end, so others can participate. You’ll be able to participate whether or not you have read or are reading the book.

Before I entered the Church, I put the "big" in anti-Catholic bigotry

mccu@NULL.COM (Paul McCusker)

I shudder to think of it now. There I was at a CS Lewis conference and the esteemed teacher Peter Kreeft had been talking about ten things to learn from JRR Tolkien about evil. A brilliant talk. And, at the break, I had a chance to corner Kreeft to ask him a few questions. In the course of that short conversation, he mentioned to me how he had become a Catholic while attending Calvin College. Everyone else probably knew it, but I didn’t. And I was surprised. But here’s the thing that surprised me and makes me shudder to think of it now: my immediate thought was, “How could a man this smart be a Catholic?”

There are four challenges awaiting Pope Francis at Rio's World Youth Day

alle@NULL.COM (John Allen)

In exactly two months, Pope Francis will make his first overseas trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for World Youth Day. It shapes up as the biggest Catholic blowout of the early 21st century, a massive celebration of history’s first Latin American pope folded into what’s already the Catholic version of Lollapalooza. At one level, it’s tempting to start writing success stories now. The crowds will be huge and enthusiastic, Brazil desperately wants the event to go well to showcase its status as the emerging superpower of the developing world (and as a trial run for both the World Cup next year and the Summer Olympics in 2016), and Francis has already proven that he’s more than ready for prime time.

Read this short description of contemplation from the National Parks Service. Then go visit the Blessed Sacrament...

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Just look and see...

The family fell first then faith followed

ruse@NULL.COM (Austin Ruse)

The clearest example of the thesis on how family nurtures faith is in vocations. In the olden days larger intact families produced priests. That’s one reason the seminaries bulged back in the baby boom, also why there was something of a religious revival after the Second World War. But today’s two-child, one-child, no-child, broken-up, broken-down, single-mother, absent-father disasters pretending to be families simply do not produce priests. Today’s disaster families don’t even produce many Church-goers to speak of let alone vocations to religious life.

Don Pino, the priest who stood up to the Sicilian Mafia (and will soon be beatified for it)

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

On May 25, a mere twenty years after his murder, the Italian Catholic priest Don Giuseppe “Pino” Puglisi will be beatified. A figure much beloved in Sicily, Puglisi will be the first victim of the mafia to be declared a blessed by the Catholic Church. Puglisi’s beatification is a sign of how a Church once deeply complicit with organized crime came to stand heroically against it. A native of Brancaccio, perhaps the roughest and poorest neighborhood of Palermo, the young Pino Puglisi was exposed to the dangers of the mob since being ordained a priest in 1960. His first assignment was a village called Godrano in Sicily. In this hamlet of only about one hundred people, fifteen villagers were killed by the mafia near the time of his arrival. Puglisi responded by going door to door to preach reconciliation and forgiveness of one’s enemies.

How’s that “culture of encounter” workin’ for ya?

lind@NULL.COM (Max Lindenman)

If you define a culture of encounter as a search for common ground, then the Church, by the lights of its own leadership, has been participating in one for decades. (George Weigel gives a good overview of the inner-city renewal projects co-signed by the Bishops’ Conference under Cardinal Bernardin’s leadership.) What it got in return was nuns on the bus, Taoiseach Kenny at Boston College, and Andrew Cuomo in Albany. It was an encounter in the way a jailhouse rape is an encounter. Apparently in recognition of these concerns, Pope-Emeritus Benedict issued “De Caritate Ministranda,” a motu proprio requiring that Catholic charities be “managed in conformity with the demands of the Church’s teaching,” lest they become “just another organized form of social assistance.”

The decay of Western culture happened on our watch, because "Beige Catholicism" is good for nothing

pope@NULL.COM (Msgr. Charles Pope)

Fr. Robert Barron speaks of 70s Catholicism as the era of “beige Catholicism” where all the zest, color, edginess, and zeal of the Catholic faith was painted over and Catholics sought to blend in, even disappear. Welcome to the results of “salt gone flat” Catholicism. Little by little we must recover our salt, our zest, pep and even stinging quality. Flat Catholics are good for nothing. And if the salt will not be salt, there is no salt-substitute for it. Thus Jesus asks rhetorically: if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Again there is no substitute for Christians. If we will not be light, the world is in darkness. If we will not be salt the world will not be purified, preserved, or have anything good or tasty about it at all. The decay of Western culture happened on our watch when we collectively decided to stop being salt and light.

I'm going to share a little life improvement secret I've discovered...

fish@NULL.COM (Simcha Fisher)

Even at this late date, I’m still looking for it: that one, simple step I can take that will make my life easier, make my love stronger, make my brain faster, and make my pants looser. Deep down, I know there is no such thing; but hope springs eternal in the heart of a lazy person. I don’t want to have to take all the little steps I’ll have to take to slowly and gradually make minor improvements in thirty-six different areas of my life. I don’t wanna! I want to push a red button and wake up to find that everything’s better.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote a short story about Jay Gatsby's Catholic boyhood

nobl@NULL.COM (Sr. Theresa Noble)

The best acting in the entire movie is hands down Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan Baker. She captured the spirit of Fitzgerald's character: a women with a "pleasing contemptuous expression" with a "wan, charming, discontented face" who threw "her body backward at the shoulders like a young cadet." Leonardo does a good job too; I especially appreciated his ability to believably play the mysterious millionaire with date jitters. However, I agree with other reviewers that he did not get the "old sport" line right throughout the whole movie, and this is cause for a bit of anguish as the phrase peppers his dialogue. The rest of the cast is good, with the exception of Tobey Maguire who unfortunately played a terrible Nick Carraway. Instead of capturing Nick's enigmatic, aloof personality, Tobey played a wimpy, flinching kid who can barely grow a beard. He narrates the movie in a voice so hoarse and slow that at first I thought he was narrating from a nursing home. One reviewer said of Tobey's narration: "He manages the excitement levels of a small vole recently awoken from hibernation by the roaring twenties and now anxious to get back to sleep."

Heroine says Catholic faith inspired her to confront Muslims who murdered soldier in London

eden@NULL.COM (Dawn Eden)

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, the mother of two and former Scout leader who calmly confronted the Woolwich killers in hope of preventing further bloodshed, credits her heroic actions to her Catholic faith. Her Catholic values also come through in the video interview above, when she is asked why she wasn’t scared to confront the murderers. Her answer: “Better me than a child.”

Benedict XVI writing encyclical on faith that will be promulgated by Pope Francis, says Bishop of Molfetta

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

Following his recent visit ad limina with the bishops of his region, the Bishop of Molfetta (Apulia, Italy), Luigi Martella, spoke of the conversation they had with the new Pope, including the following

10 things you need to know today: May 24, 2013

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The Boy Scouts ends its ban on gay youths, Obama announces limits on controversial drone strikes, and more

Yes, Pope Francis said that all are ‘redeemed’. But is that news to anyone?

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

There is nothing strange about saying that the sacrificial death of Jesus redeemed all of humanity and all of creation. In fact, Pope Benedict XVI made similar remarks, wrestling with the purpose of the Court of the Gentiles in the ancient Jerusalem temple. So, let’s repeat the theological “nut ‘graph” in this journalism class. The pope said all are redeemed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Check. The pope said that it is important to recognize that all can do good and, thus, to move closer to God — even if they are not believers. Check. Did the pope, to be blunt, say that hell is empty, that all have chosen to accept the redemption offered by Jesus Christ? Did he say that no one has chosen to remove themselves from the cleansing fire of God’s love? No check.

Sign up for the Catholic Apologetics Academy and learn from experts like Patrick Madrid, Peter Kreeft, and Frank Beckwith

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The Bible exhorts Christians to “always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for the hope that is in you, but do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15-16). It also encourages us to “earnestly contend for the Faith” (Jude 1:3). This is why the Envoy Institute’s Catholic Apologetics Academy was established: To provide thorough, substantive, high-level, and doctrinally orthodox training in apologetics for Catholic adults who desire to live out more effectively those biblical precepts.

"The Secret of Notre Dame": Cardinal Dolan's 2013 commencement address

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Thank you, Notre Dame, for the joy of your company, the gracious invitation, the warm welcome, and the high honor of this degree. It was so obvious I almost missed it. See, ever since, almost a year ago, Father Jenkins, with characteristic thoughtfulness, invited me to deliver this commencement address, I’ve been mulling over just what to say to you, class of 2013. Only Friday a week ago I still had not yet completed this talk, and I got on the train in New York City to travel to D.C. In Philadelphia, a distinguished looking man boarded the train and sat next to me. He turned out to be a fanatical, in-your-face, obnoxious Notre Dame alumnus! You ever met one? Nice to meet you! Now I guess I am proudly one, after the privilege of this honorary degree which I so appreciate and cherish! He begins to speak with obviously radiant pride and gratitude about Notre Dame, telling me his faithful Jewish parents wanted him to attend a Catholic college - - because, in their words. “The Church founded the universities, and educate better than anybody else” - - and reporting to me that, even as a faithful Jew, he considers his four years here at this Catholic university a gift beyond measure. When I told him I’d be here for graduation, he beamed.

"Who are we before God? What are our challenges?" Francis meets the Italian bishops...

palm@NULL.COM (Rocco Palmo)

At the close of the Italian bishops' plenary this week in Rome, the home-bench – led by its primate, the Pope – gathered in St Peter's tonight to make a communal Profession of Faith as part of the ongoing Year of Faith. The event marked Francis' first full encounter with the powerful Italian conference, known as the CEI.

Boy Scouts vote to admit gay members; gay activists celebrate victory as "great first step" in strategy

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

The Boy Scouts of America today voted to lift its longtime ban on admitting gay Scouts but will continue to exclude openly gay adults from leadership roles. The vote by its 1,400 national membership came as no surprise to gay rights advocates, who hailed it as a first step to ending discriminatory practices in the 103-year-old organization.

9 foods you're totally eating wrong

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Sushi, chicken wings, even cupcakes. We all love them. And we're all eating them in the worst way possible. Most of us are guilty of a stubborn mindset and and overwhelming desire to scarf down food the second it becomes visible. As a result, we never get to appreciate the full potential of what we're served. It's our loss. Fortunately, YouTube has come to our rescue. Here are several videos that teach us the proper way to consume some of our absolute favorite foods.

Don’t make fun of renowned author Dan Brown, author of renowned book 'The Da Vinci Code'

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

Renowned author Dan Brown woke up in his luxurious four-poster bed in his expensive $10 million house – and immediately he felt angry. Most people would have thought that the 48-year-old man had no reason to be angry. After all, the famous writer had a new book coming out. But that was the problem. A new book meant an inevitable attack on the rich novelist by the wealthy wordsmith’s fiercest foes. The critics.

Ten marks of a good school

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

In the last nine years, our family has tried five different types of elementary school: home school, private school, parochial school, public school. and charter school. We're extremely lucky to have found one that works very well for us, and it's hard to imagine switching for any reason other than, say, statewide devastation by asteroids. With all that switching around from school to school, we've learned a few things about the basic marks of a good elementary school. (There are often fewer options for high school; and older kids have different needs, and are more resilient than younger kids.) Since this is the time of year when parents are assessing whether or not their kids are in the right place, I thought this would be a good time to share what we've discovered.

The media coverage of Pope Francis’ "exorcism" isn't journalism. It's just embarrassing...

hemi@NULL.COM (M.Z. Hemingway)

It’s kind of charming that all popes have to deal with bad media coverage and global press frenzies. This week we’ve seen some awful media coverage of Pope Francis, including coverage of his blessing of a man after Mass on Sunday. Part of the blame must go to the Italian press, which really went crazy with the story in a way that might not be prudent. But I’ll restrict myself to the English-language media. Let’s begin with the Telegraph

I was an avid follower of the New Atheists. But when I read the work of their Catholic foes, my life changed forever...

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

Last Easter, when I was just beginning to explore the possibility that, despite what I had previously believed and been brought up to believe, there might be something to the Catholic faith, I read Letters to a Young Catholic by George Weigel. One passage in particular struck me. Talking of the New Testament miracles and the meaning of faith, Weigel writes: “In the Catholic view of things, walking on water is an entirely sensible thing to do. It’s staying in the boat, hanging tightly to our own sad little securities, that’s rather mad.” In the following months, that life outside the boat – the life of faith –would come to make increasing sense to me, until eventually I could no longer justify staying put. Last weekend I was baptised and confirmed into the Catholic Church.

Apologetics is not a telephone game

arno@NULL.COM (Michelle Arnold)

There once was a minister who noticed that his little boy and the neighbor kids had decided to put together a funeral for a dead bird they had found. Being the Preacher's Kid, the minister's son was deputed to lead the services. Standing before the tiny grave, shoebox casket waiting to be laid into the ground, the minister's son confidently intoned

"A war between Catholics": Nigerian bishop installed away from cathedral as tribal tensions threaten Church unity

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As the Catholics of the Diocese of Ahiara protested the appointment of a bishop from a nearby diocese as their shepherd, local bishops expressed sadness at the disunity in the Church of Nigeria. Bishop Peter Ebere Okpaleke – formerly a priest of the Awka diocese – was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Ahiara in Nigeria May 21, while many residents of the diocese rallied against the move. Due to the strong opposition among the local Mbaise community, Bishop Okpaleke was installed outside his new diocese, at Seat of Wisdom Seminary in Ulakwo, in the Archdiocese of Owerri.

It's been one month since two Orthodox archbishops were kidnapped in Syria, and we still don't know who did it

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

It’s exactly one month since two Syrian Orthodox archbishops were kidnapped near the city of Aleppo. The Greek Orthodox archbishop of Aleppo Yohanna Ibrahim and his Syriac Orthodox counterpart Boulos Yazaji were seized by gunmen while travelling back from the Turkish border. No group has claimed responsibility for their abduction. The Catholic Chaldean bishop of Aleppo, Antoine Audo spoke to Susy Hodges about their growing concern over the fate of the two prelates.

In 1960, ABC (and Winston cigarettes) brought something new to the young medium of television: The Flintstones

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

In 1960, ABC brought something new to the young medium of television: A full-length (30 minute) animated cartoon TV series. Sure, cartoons had been broadcast since TV's inception, but never an actual primetime cartoon series. The show was "made for adults," but the millions of kids who routinely tuned in didn't know or didn't care about that. The Flintstones ran for six very successful years (1960-1966). The original pilot for the series was called The Flagstones. This name was changed because of the popular comic strip Hi and Lois, whose last name was Flagstone. Their creators threatened legal action if that surname was appropriated by ABC.

The surprising identity cards of the last two popes

magi@NULL.COM (Sandro Magister)

With a delay of two months with respect to the traditional timetable, the 2013 edition has finally been published of the Annuario Pontificio, the voluminous publication that constitutes a sort of who's who of the Holy See and of the whole Catholic Church, at least in its hierarchical component. This delay with respect to the canonical timing is without a doubt due to the unexpected resignation of Benedict XVI, announced on February 11, and to the subsequent conclave that saw the election of the new pope on March 13. Last year, in fact, as is the tradition, Benedict XVI received a preview of the 2012 edition of the Annuario on March 10. While this year, Pope Francis had it in his hands only on March 13. Apart from the timing, the new Annuario is not lacking in those surprises which characterize the current pontificate.

The Book of Genesis is true, and the universe is 13.8 billion years old. There is no contradiction here...

akin@NULL.COM (Jimmy Akin)

Wouldn't it be great if scientists invented a device that enabled us to have a clear window into the past--so that we wouldn't just have to read about the past in books? Instead, with the new device--let's call it a Time Window--we could actually see events occurring in the past in real time, with our own eyes? That would be wicked awesome, wouldn't it? The exciting news is that scientists have invented this device! That's right! The Time Window is real! What's more, they invented it just over 400 years ago, so they've had the chance to mature the technology to the point that now it's really, really good.

The Liturgy of the Hours for the rest of us

burk@NULL.COM (Dan Burke)

If you're like any number of Catholics, you've heard of the breviary, the Divine Office, and the Liturgy of the Hours. Maybe you've tried your hand at an Hour or two. Maybe you've even succeeded. But maybe, like many of our fellow Catholics, you've failed and given up, coming to the conclusion that those who devote themselves to the Liturgy of the Hours are either insane or much less busy than you are. If this is where you are, I hope you will find encouragement here to reengage or begin a new adventure into the unceasing prayer of the Church.

Did Pope Francis really preach salvation by works, and that all men will be saved?

long@NULL.COM (Fr. Dwight Longenecker)

The Huffington Post has a screaming headline, Pope Francis says Atheists Who do Good are Redeemed, Not Just Catholics. Vatican Radio reports on the homily here. In a homily at daily Mass in the chapel of the Saint Martha hostel, Pope Francis spoke on the principle that “doing good” is a principle that unites all of humanity. Commenting on the gospel where the disciples want to exclude a person who is doing good, but is not of their number, the Pope observes that Jesus says, “Let him be.” The Holy Father then goes on to make his main point, that rabid intolerance and exclusion eventually leads to violence.

Did Pope Francis really say that all atheists are redeemed?

vogt@NULL.COM (Brandon Vogt)

Yesterday, the Internet buzzed about some recent remarks from Pope Francis. A headline at Huffington Post read: "Pope Francis Says Atheists Who Do Good Are Redeemed, Not Just Catholics". A similar Reddit article became yesterday's second most-shared piece. But was the headline right? Did the Pope really suggest that all atheists are redeemed? And if so, is this a shift in Catholic teaching? To answer those questions we must first note the Gospel passage Pope Francis preached on when he made the statement...

Pope Francis: Be "salt of the earth" and not "museum-piece Christians"

NULL@NULL.COM (NAME)

That Christians might spread the spiritual salt of faith, hope and charity: this was Pope Francis’ exhortation at Mass Thursday morning in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence in the Vatican. The Pope warned against the risk of becoming insipid, “Museum-piece Christians.” In his homily, Pope Francis focused on the savour that Christians are called to give to their own lives and to others’. The Holy Father said that salt the Lord gives us is the salt of faith, hope and charity. But, he warned, we must be careful that this salt, which is given to us by the certainty that Jesus died and rose again to save us, “does not lose its flavour, does not lose its strength.” This salt, he continued, “is not for keeping, because if the salt is preserved in a bottle it does not do anything: it is good for nothing”