A New Concentrated Effort?

This from an editorial of a student run paper...

From Working for Loyola - The Phoenix - Discourse:

The call to remove this ad was prompted by a new crackdown in the Catholic Church. Since Pope Benedict XVI was elected, the church has begun a concentrated effort to make sure church-affiliated bodies were presenting the unified, constant message of the Church. Members of the administration have told me, independently, of this new 'heightened sensitivity' to opinions contrary to the teachings of the Church.

Great Quote

From Jean Pierre De Causade

God reveals Himself to the humble in the lowliest of disguises, but the proud who never look beyond the surface, fail to find Him even in His greatest manifestations.

And:

Without God everything is nothing, with God nothing is everything.

The Decline of the Laity

I was reading a Russian Orthodox theologian last night and something struck me...the real crisis in the Church today is that despite Vatican II's call for the laity to once again recognize their mission is that since Vatican II the laity as the leaven of the church has almost disappeared.

Read Raymond Arroyo's new biography Mother Angelica : The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles. Who was the inspiration for the young Rita to eventually become Mother Angelica? It wasn't a priest. It wasn't a nun. It was a lay woman.

Who inspired Thomas Merton? Laypeople.

It is true that the sacramental life of the church is entrusted to the Bishops and priests but the mystical life of the church is open to anyone...in fact even the most primary Sacrament of the church can be celebrated by anyone (in cases of emergency anyone can baptize...male or female, even unbelievers). Some diabolical twist has happened since Vatican II where people who want to lead holy lives have been drawn into doing so in a frustrating environment where they really don't belong and meanwhile the once rich heritage of lay apostolate and holiness has almost disappeared--Russel Shaw wrote an excellent book on this a few years ago entitled Ministry or Apostolate?: What Should the Catholic Laity Be Doing

Do you want to make a difference in the Catholic Church? Then begin by turning to the Triune God and asking him through the merits of his son's passion to send the Holy Spirit into your life and to make you a light that shines before all. Go to mass, pray before the Blessed Sacrament but then take Our Lord with you back home, in your workplace, and in your neighborhood. Make your life a witness.

This Sunday's gospel is about judgment and you'll notice that what we will be judged on has everything to do with how well we recognize Christ in the everyday visitations that have nothing to do with Church but everything to do with bringing "Thy Kindom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

"I Have a Feeling I've Eaten Here Before"

The "Why Catholics Give" has sparked a lively debate...

 

From Commentor Roseberry:

 

In my own town I have seen more than one altar (complete with carvings of host and chalice) serving as the cash desk at commercial establishments. At a downtown fish restaurant, the stained glass windows from our former seminary have been installed, and the old wooden communion rail separated the buffet area from the tables. This prompted a local journalist to say, as he stepped to the buffet, "I have a feeling I've eaten here before."

Amy and My Books Make Great Christmas Gifts

From Amy:

I've redone and updated our bookstore, and have rashly included a new special offer:

All 15 titles in the bookstore for $150.00, shipping included. I thought that some of you might want to make a gift to your parish library or local Newman Center (well, the later sans the children's saints' books, but you surely have some worthy child in your life who could use those)

Go here for the goods.

Why Catholics Give

I'm tired of hearing the oft repeated refrain that we Catholics have something to learn about giving from our non-Catholic friends.

 

Take a look around you, in your city or town and take a good look at all those large Catholic buildings...churches, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, seminaries, religious houses...how did they ever get built?

 

From the generous giving of Catholics.

 

Now, take another look. How have they been used? Is the giving that built them dried up because many of those who were given so much have taken what was given and tried to go "professional" and make a "profit"? One is likely to take a walk (if they live in the Northern U.S.) among the ruins of Catholicism...abandoned orphanages, closed seminaries, closed religious houses, sacred buildings that now serve as a restaraunt mocking the former building's occupants by having waitresses walk around in short modified friar's habits.

 

Another meaning of the parable we heard yesterday might be to see the distributor of the cash as the laity and the servants as the servant leaders of the church. What have they done with what has been given? How have they used it?

 

I still find Catholics to be the most generous givers out there, those who find Catholics aren't giving to their particular church or ministry might want to ask themselves why these generous givers aren't choosing to give to them.

Families of Murdered Men to Hold News Conference at Bishop's Conference

Not even a note from the Bishop?

 

From the Hudson Star Tribunne:

 

"We haven't had a card, a note, a phone call from our own bishop, so we have to try to get their attention another way," said Tom O'Connell. His son, Dan, and intern James Ellison were shot and killed on Feb. 5, 2003, at the O'Connell funeral home in Hudson.

The Rev. Ryan Erickson, a priest in Hudson at the time, probably killed the men because O'Connell was about to confront the priest over allegations that he sexually abused a teenage boy, a judge ruled last month. Erickson, who had been moved twice by his bishop after the killings, hanged himself last December.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opens its annual fall meeting in Washington today. Most of the sessions are closed to the public.

"They have their charter saying they will protect young people from abuse, but what are they doing?" Tom O'Connell said Sunday.

At their news conference in Washington, 10 members of the two families will ask that each bishop disclose far more information about alleged abusers and their misdeeds, publicly acknowledge their mistakes, meet with abuse victims and support laws in every state to lift criminal and civil statutes of limitations in child sex-abuse cases.

"They won't talk with us privately," said O'Connell, who with the Ellisons has asked to meet with Pope Benedict on the issues. "Maybe we can get their attention by speaking publicly."