Two Metro Trains Collide in Rome

From the BBC:

One person was killed and about 110 were injured when two metro trains
collided during the morning rush hour in Rome, officials say.
The crash
took
place at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II station in the centre of the
Italian
capital. The trains were travelling on metro line A.
The square
above has
been cordoned off. Police and firemen are at the scene.

How Much More Good Will They be Able to Do?

Hopefully the canonization of their founder will spur the Sisters of Providence to new heights.

The words of Pope Benedict XVI from the Tribune Star:

“‘Go and sell everything you own, and give the money to the poor … then
come, follow me.’ These words have inspired countless Christians throughout the
history of the church to follow Christ in a life of radical poverty, trusting in
divine providence. Among these generous disciples of Christ was a young
Frenchwoman, who responded unreservedly to the call of the Divine Teacher.
Mother Theodore Guerin entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence in
1823, and she devoted herself to the work of teaching in schools. Then in 1839,
she was asked by her superiors to travel to the United States to become the head
of a new community in Indiana. After their long journey over land and sea, the
group of six sisters arrived at St. Mary-of-the-Woods. There they found a simple
log-cabin chapel in the heart of the forest. They knelt down before the blessed
sacrament and gave thanks, asking God’s guidance upon the new foundation. “With
great trust in divine providence, Mother Theodore overcame many challenges and
persevered in the work that the Lord had called her to do. By the time of her
death in 1856, the sisters were running schools and orphanages throughout the
state of Indiana. In her own words, ‘How much good has been accomplished by the
sisters of St. Mary-of-the-Woods. How much more good they will be able to do if
they remain faithful to their holy vocation.”

A Married Catholic Priest Extolls the Gift of Celibacy

Father Ray Ryland...in Crisis Magazine:

“You're a married priest? I didn't know we had married priests. I think the
Church should let all her priests marry.”

Words like these have greeted me frequently since my ordination to the priesthood in 1983, with dispensation from the rule of celibacy. I always assure those who favor optional celibacy that both my wife and I strongly support the Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. While I'm deeply grateful that the Church has made an exception for certain former Protestant clergy like me, the exception is clearly a compromise.
The priesthood and marriage are both full-time vocations. The fact is, no one
can do complete justice to both simultaneously.

T he objection usually persists. “But surely a married man is better qualified to teach people about marriage than is a celibate priest.” Again, I disagree (politely, of course). The purpose of marriage preparation is not to teach couples what the priest has experienced. Catholic couples need and have the right to be instructed in the
Church's revealed truth about the meaning of human sexuality and holy matrimony.
If both a married and a celibate priest are reasonably mature, and if each teaches in harmony with the Church, the married priest has no essential advantage over the celibate priest in giving marriage instruction.

Then comes the final argument. “Yes, that may be, but if priests could marry, it
would solve our priest shortage.” I reply that this is an assumption with no
evidence to support it. If the rule of celibacy is keeping men out of the priesthood, how do we account for the dioceses in this country that have an abundance of priests? As Pope Paul VI said 40 years ago, the decline in priestly vocations is due to lack of faith on the part of our people. The dissent that has been rampant in recent decades has created widespread confusion about the Church's teaching, especially with regard to the priesthood.

Saints Behaving Badly

Tom Craughwell gives hope to all of us--who as we alone know are the worst of sinners, that there is still a chance that if we turn to God we can be saints! I know what you're thinking, "How could I ever be a saint?" Or maybe you're thinking "How could he ever be a saint?" Good questions.

In Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints,just published by Doubleday, Tom Craughwill gives the answers.The list of the evils that some saints engaged in before their conversion is long: thievery, embezzling, satanists, promiscuity, idolatry, drunkedness and even anti-popery. The list brings to mind St. Paul "Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God" and what follows "And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11). Indeed!

Craughwell's book is filled with both the well known (Augustine, Patrick, Francis of Assisi,Ignatius of Loyola) and the lesser known (Callixtus, Pelagia, Genesius, Fabiola). From the latter group is the story of St. Pelagia, an actress who before her conversion lived a life of rather loose morals. One can readily think of a number of similar actors, actresses, rock stars, politicians who might be the Pelagia's of today--whose popularity is matched by the wanton lifestyle they lead--leading others down a path of self-destruction. What keeps them and us from following Pelagia's path to saintdom--perhaps this event related by Craughwell provides a hint:

That night the devil woke Pelagia. "What evil have I ever done to you?" he asked. "Tell me how I have offended, and I will give you whatever you want. Only do not leave me. Do not make me a laughingstock."

Most of us would probably believe that lie--and if you do you might need to read another book that has just been published by Ascension Press, Interview With an Exorcist. Pelagia didn't need that book, but she knew what to do:

Pelagia made the sign of the cross and drove the devil away.

Of course this exactly what Saints Behaving Badly does for the reader, it gives them a solid lesson in Christian spirituality by showing them how the great saints have overcome the very evils that plague many of us. It is a catechism of a different source, a real page turner and in the end a book that can change your life.

Freddie Fender is Dead

From USA Today:

Freddy Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad Before the Next Teardrop Falls, died Saturday. He was 69.

Fender, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2006, died at noon at his Corpus Christi home with his family at his bedside, said Ron Rogers, a family spokesman.

Over the years, he grappled with drug and alcohol abuse, was treated for diabetes and underwent a kidney transplant.

Fender hit it big in 1975 after some regional success, years of struggling — and a stint in prison — when Before the Next Teardrop Falls climbed to No. 1 on the pop and country charts.

St Théodore (Anne-Thérèse) Guerin

Indianapolis Star blog

Criterion Blog

From the Indianapolis Star:

Pope Benedict, seated on a gold-trimmed throne in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, accepted gifts from Hoosiers Phil McCord, Sisters of Providence Marie Kevin Tighe and Denise Wilkinson, giving each a personal blessing.

It was the medically unexplained healing on McCord’s eye in 2001 that was deemed as the second miracle necessary for Guerin to be declared a saint.
McCord, now 60, offered up a prayer asking Guerin to seek God’s favor in healing.
Tighe, who promoted the cause of sainthood for 10 years, said: “It was like it is sealed, it is finished,” she said of a cause that has been in the works for nearly a century.

Wilkinson, who presented the pope with a picture of Mother Theodore and a check for $5,000 for to serve the needs of women and children, is the current leader of the Sisters of Providence, the order that Guerin founded northwest of Terre Haute in 1840.

Feast of St. Gerard Celebrated at Shrine

From the NJ Star-Ledger:

Thousands of people, many of them expectant mothers, are expected to descend this weekend on St. Lucy's Roman Catholic Church for the Feast of St. Gerard, a colorful, spiritual 107-year-old tradition that continues today.

St. Gerard is widely revered by Catholics as a protector of aspiring and expectant mothers.

The highlight of the festival - located in the heart of Newark's Old Little Italy - is the procession of the church's St. Gerard statue through the streets of the neighborhood. The procession will be held today, tomorrow and Monday afternoons.

As the statue is marched in the street on a pedestal, the faithful pin dollar bills and donation envelopes on it, covering it almost entirely in green. The church usually makes about $200,000 from the festival, enough for about a quarter of its annual budget, Granato said.

The novena to St. Gerard is included in my novena prayer book, which for some reason has jumped into the top 100 Catholic bestseller's at Amazon today: