Learning to be Quick to Listen

Holy Christmas to everyone. As we celebrate the birthday of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I am reminded of the good things that are happening in a world filled with sadness and hurt. It is the times when God's angels perform the daily miracles that many people do not seem to notice. On a day like today, when so many folks return home to visit family there are also folks who have spent the day alone. For everyone who posted their Santa booty on their Facebook page, there are just as many that have no computer and received no presents. Just as people strive to have the perfect holly, jolly Christmas others struggle to survive. So as we celebrate the birth of Jesus during the Christmas season, let us put our action behind what we learned in the scriptures. We need to be doers and not just hearers of the word. St. James epistle is quite clear on this point. Just as Moses heard, he also acted. Just as Mary said yes, she also acted. The list is endless with people like Noah, Peter, E...

There will be tribulation but there is Jesus. It is what I keep hearing as I pray for the victims in the Sandy Hook School tragedy. We are struggling to comprehend how this can happen. But just today, there is an article that says that mass killings happen once every two weeks in the United States. How can that be true? The report says that many of them go unreported. The Sandy Hook murders grabbed our collective attention because it involved innocent children. But all murdered victims are innocent. Including those killed by abortion. This is not another politicized statement about what happened in Newtown. It is statement of the fact that we as a nation have lost our moral way. When there is not right or wrong then we struggle to maintain our civility. When we prevent people from praying and instead, bully them into thinking they cannot talk about God in "public" places, we only cause confusion in a world that is already filled with chaos. So where do we go from here? I say ...

I urge everyone to pray for the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut mass murder. It is unfathomable that someone could be so evil. Not knowing his motive makes it even harder to bear. What triggered this amount of hatred? Satan is definitely meddling in the minds of some folks. We need prayer warriors to respond to this new level of evilness. There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked. (Isaiah 48:22)

Julea Ward was just a few credits away from her counseling degree when Eastern Michigan University expelled her. As part of her practicum, the school assigned Julea to a homosexual case study. As a Christian, Julea didn't think that she could see the student -- not because she didn't want to help, but because she didn't want to affirm his lifestyle. After consulting her supervisor, Julea referred the student to another counselor -- which is, as her attorneys pointed out, "a common, professional practice." Weeks later, the university hauled Julea before a disciplinary committee and told her she'd have to enroll in a "remediation" program. When she refused, they kicked her out of the program. For the last three years, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has fought its way through the courts to vindicate Julea. Yesterday, they succeeded. After a blockbuster ruling in January, Eastern Michigan finally agreed to settle the case this week -- capping a long an...

Every time you ask a question about your TV, even if it doesn't answer back, you're doing the right thing. You are becoming more media literate. It's perfectly fine to ask questions about the pervasive influence of commercials, the content of programming, and the seductive spell cast by the glow of the flat screen (or tube, if you've got an old-enough set that still works). The task becomes a critical one for parents as they grind their teeth in anxiety over making TV their children's electronic baby sitter. Or making the computer the sitter. Or the video game. A new online guide, produced jointly by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Alliance for Childhood in collaboration with an organization called TRUCE -- short for Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children's Entertainment -- helps clarify the issues for parents, and grandparents, too. Called "Facing the Screen Dilemma: Young Children, Technology and Early Education," the 27-page guid...

As the Church celebrates the season of Advent, Pope Benedict said that Catholics should remember “God is present” and recall his “plan of loving goodness. Advent invites us, in the midst of many difficulties, to renew the assurance that God is present," he told thousands in his general audience at the Vatican recently. Pope Benedict XVI called Advent the time which prepares us for the coming of Christ, which he said is "the great plan of loving goodness," which God wants to use to draw us to him. "He came into the world, becoming a man like us, to fulfill his plan of love and God demands we become a sign of action in the world," he told the pilgrims at Paul VI Hall. "This ‘plan of loving goodness’ hasn't remained in God's silence, in the height of his heaven, but he has revealed it by engaging in a relationship with man, whom he has revealed himself to," he said. Pope Benedict noted that God has not delivered simply a set of truths, but has co...

The Pope's Twitter account will be @pontifex and will start on December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Vatican representatives announced. The news of the 85-year-old tweeting came out weeks ago, but officials finally revealed the account's name and that it will be launched on the Marian feast day, which they said was a coincidence. But instead of informing people of his favorite band and other trivia, the Pope’s goal will be to impart spiritual messages to people around the globe. Greg Burke, who was recently appointed media advisor to the Holy See's Secretary of State, explained that the name was chosen because pontifex means both “Pope and bridge builder,” and the Holy Father desires to reach out to everyone with the initiative. On the first day, Pope Benedict will personally tweet, but after that assistants will tweet content he approves. "They will be his words and no one will be putting words in his mouth," Burke explained. "My personal input wi...

St. John's Catholic School in Beloit, Kan. is striving to revitalize Catholic culture by promoting openness to priestly and religious vocations among its students. “The teachers care about us and our faith and what we're going to do when we get older,” senior Leandra Silsby told Catholic News Agency, “so they help us be disciplined in our faith. In our religion class sometimes we get to go to Adoration, and that's the best time to just sit there and pray, and focus on our vocations, on what God's plan is for our lives.” Andrew Niewald, a theology teacher at the high school, says the school is committed to “teach Catholicism as it was meant to be taught.” Niewald himself graduated from St. John's in 1998 and said that the past 10 years have seen a marked improvement in the school, which has allowed it to maintain its presence at a cost of only $700 in tuition per child per year. He said that the school is three years into a “Great Books” and integrated humanities pro...

A successful Advent initiative in Washington, D.C., is urging people to use the true meaning of the Christmas season to learn more about the Catholic faith and grow closer to Christ. In an online video, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, D.C., reflected that “when we think of Christmas, we think of gifts,” because gift-giving is “one of the ways in which we show our love for the people around us. We are always looking for the right gift, the perfect gift,” he observed. “Christmas is all about that great and perfect gift that is Jesus Christ.” To aid people in remembering that Christmas is an invitation to celebrate Christ’s birth and grow in a relationship with him, the archdiocese is continuing its “Find the Perfect Gift” and “Regalo Perfecto” initiatives that were successfully debuted during Advent last year. The campaigns invite holiday shoppers in the D.C. area to remember the real meaning of Christmas and to enter into a deeper relationship with Jesus. The archdiocese will d...

Father Jeffrey Montz delivered an insightful homily that was recommended by our own Fr. Chris Decker. It is about the recent election for sure but it is really about so much more. As our country struggles to maintain its history of religious tolerance and adherence to Christian morals, the question can only be "Are you doing your part as a soldier of Jesus Christ?" Here is a transcript of the sermon. I want to begin today by thanking those of you who went out on Tuesday and voted for the sacredness of human life. Just as the widow’s deed in our 1st reading will never be forgotten as long as the Scriptures are read, be assured that no righteous deed that we ever undertake will be forgotten by Almighty God. This past Wednesday, the day after the election, I received a message on my phone at the parish office, from a gentleman who didn’t identify himself by name but who said he was a parishioner. And in this message, this gentleman ranted for several minutes about Tuesday’s el...

For the first time in 11 years, the sun set yesterday with the shadow of a cross spilling out into the Mojave Desert. After a long and bitter battle, the seven-foot veterans' memorial was finally back in its rightful place on Sunrise Rock. For the VFW, Liberty Institute, caretakers Henry and Wanda Sandoz, and everyone who fought to save the Mojave Desert Cross, it was the perfect way to celebrate Veterans' Day. Before a crowd of more than 100, supporters rededicated the cross to the memory of America 's fallen heroes. "Judges and lawyers may have played their roles," said Liberty attorney Hiram Sasser, "but it was the veterans who earned this memorial, and it is for them that it rises once more." For the legal team, the victory was a long time coming. In 2010, after nine years of defending the memorial in court, a majority of justices agreed to keep the cross on its remote patch of desert land. But before the Sandozes could reinstate the monument, it was...

Just a year after U.S. Catholics began using the new English translation of the Roman Missal at Masses, the bishops agreed November 13 to have work begin on a revision of the Liturgy of the Hours. By a vote of 189 to 41, with one abstention, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved beginning work on updates to hymns, psalms, various canticles, psalm prayers, some antiphons, biblical readings and other components of the liturgical prayers used at various parts of the day. Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the Committee on Divine Worship, said the work would probably take three to five years to complete. In presenting the request for a vote to the bishops, Archbishop Aymond said the aim of retranslation would be to more accurately reflect the original Latin texts. In all, the approval covered 23 different components of the Liturgy of the Hours. Actions to be taken range from incorporating psalms from the Revised Grail Psalter to having the International Com...

Pope Benedict XVI called on people to never be satisfied with their earthly achievements because true happiness entails seeking out the greater good. He said people should "not be discouraged by fatigue or by obstacles born of our sins," because striving for the greater good is demanding and cannot be built or provided by mere human effort. During his general audience talk to some 20,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square, the pope spoke about "the mysterious desire for God," which lies deep in every human heart. Despite rampant secularization and people's claims of being indifferent to God, an innate yearning for God "has not completely disappeared and still today, in many ways, appears in the heart of mankind." People always strive for happiness and a well-being that is "often far from spiritual," and yet they are also aware there still remains a deeper yearning for something that could truly satisfy their "restless heart,...

After California priest Father Thomas Baker finished a grueling triathlon in Hawaii, he acknowledged that parts of the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike race and a 26.2-mile marathon were tough. That's when, he said later, he "used the rosary, my mantras and the faces of all those praying for me to help me move forward." The 53-year-old pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Lancaster conquered a windy course in Kona, Hawaii, during the October 13 Ironman World Championship and crossed the finish line with a time of 13:33:36. Fellow 82-year-old competitor, Sister Madonna Buder, a member of the Sisters for Christian Community from Spokane -- and 20-year veteran of the Ironman World Championships -- thinks Father Baker is the first Catholic priest to cross the finish line in Kona. Since Ironman officials do not track that type of data they were not able to confirm it. Sister Buder qualified for Kona this year by completing in Ironman Canada in August, becoming the oldest woman to comp...

As the country approaches election day in two weeks, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia is encouraging Catholic voters to place their faith above their allegiance to political parties. “I’m always encouraging our people minimally to vote, maximally to run for political office, and make sure that they’re Catholic prior to being Democrat or Republican and that they put that into practice politically,” he said. Archbishop Chaput echoed the calls of other American bishops to have their flocks consider their faith in the voting booth. “We do believe in the separation of church and state, but we don’t believe in the separation of faith from our political life,” he said. “It’s very important for Catholics to make distinctions when voting that they never support intrinsic evils like abortion, which is evil in all circumstances. That’s a lot different from different economic policies” that people can reasonably disagree on, the archbishop explained. His remarks come as an October 22 G...

The world's huge technological and scientific progress hasn't always made people freer or happier, Pope Benedict XVI said. While scientific knowledge and advancements "are important for human life, it's not enough on its own," the pope said at his weekly general audience. "We need not just material sustenance, we need love, meaning, hope and a solid foundation" that helps people live with courage even in the face of doubt, difficulties, and everyday problems, he said. Pope Benedict continued a new series of catecheses to accompany the Year of Faith, which runs until November 24, 2013. His talk focused on the nature of faith and what it means to believe. The pope said, "Despite the great magnitude of scientific discoveries and technological successes, humanity today does not seem to have become truly freer and more human." Along with signs of progress and increased well-being, there also are "many forms of exploitation, manipulation, violen...

Marking the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and the start of a special Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI called on Catholics to revive the “authentic spirit” of Vatican II by re-proposing the church’s ancient teachings to an increasingly Godless modern world. Vatican II, Pope Benedict said, had been “animated by a desire...to immerse itself anew in the Christian mystery so as to re-propose it fruitfully to contemporary man.” He noted that Blessed John XXIII, in his speech at the opening of the council, called for both the safeguarding and the effective teaching of the “sacred deposit of Christian doctrine...this certain and immutable doctrine, which is to be faithfully respected, [and] needs to be explored and presented in a way which responds to the needs our time.” Calling for a revival in the church of the “yearning to announce Christ again to contemporary man,” the pope stressed that any new evangelization “needs to be built on a concrete and precise ba...

The teachings of the Catholic Church are coming alive for West Virginia's young Catholics through a new initiative aimed at reaching them right where they "live" -- the Internet. In association with Outside da Box, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has launched "Video Catechism for Teens" -- a free online resource for youths and young adults. The site became available October 11 to coincide with the start of the Year of Faith, instituted by Pope Benedict XVI. The yearlong program of worship, catechesis and evangelization runs to November 24, 2013. To reach the young people of the church, the diocese looked at their social experience. Findings through a recent study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that teenagers consume about 10 hours and 45 minutes of media content every day -- four hours and 29 minutes of that time is spent watching videos on the Internet or TV. "We can easily remember a time in our lives when Facebook and YouTube didn...

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a statement rebutting Vice President Joseph Biden’s claim that Catholic institutions will not be required to subsidize contraception under the new federal health-care mandate. Without mentioning Biden by name, the USCCB statement quoted a remark that the Vice President made in his October 11 debate with Republican challenger Paul Ryan: With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact. “This is not a fact,” the USCCB statement insisted. The bishops’ statement continued: The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain "religious employers." That exemp...

The need to defend religious liberty, a key issue this year for the U.S. Catholic bishops and other religious leaders, will now have a new venue for discussion and action in a handful of state legislatures. Leaders from nine states -- Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Tennessee -- announced October 9 that they would be part of a new group of state religious freedom caucuses to develop state policies to protect religious liberties. The initiative was spearheaded by the American Religious Freedom Program, which is part of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a Washington think tank. Tim Schultz, the program's state legislative policy director, said in a teleconference that there has been a "renewed interest in religious freedom" in the United States. He said the discussion of religious freedom should extend beyond the courts to determine proper boundaries of religious freedom and give a place in each state where people of faith...

In a survey of Catholics age 14 and older, about 12 percent of males and 10 percent of females said they considered a religious vocation at least "a little seriously," a study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University found. The findings, released October 9, give church leaders a vast array of data on which to base positive messages about religious life for teenagers and young adults, said Father Shawn McKnight, executive director of the Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which commissioned the survey. "When you consider 12 percent of all male youth and 10 percent of all women ... just a very small percentage (committing to a vocation) would make a tremendous difference," said Father McKnight. "The survey offers solid evidence, credible evidence to base our judgments on how to promote vocations," he added. Broken down, 3 percent of male respondents and 2 perc...

Here is a refreshing take on the definition of marriage issue. The National Football League Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk has written an opinion piece that appeared in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune supporting free speech and marriage between one man and one woman. He writes, "Same-sex unions may not affect my marriage specifically, but it will affect my children -- the next generation. Ideas have consequences, and laws shape culture. Marriage redefinition will affect the broader well-being of children and the welfare of society. As a Christian and a citizen, I am compelled to care about both. I am speaking out on this issue because it is far too important to remain silent. People who are simply acknowledging the basic reality of marriage between one man and one woman are being labeled as "bigots" and "homophobic." Aren't we past that as a society? Don't we all have family members and friends whom we love who have same-sex attraction? Attempting to si...

Pain, suffering and human mortality shouldn't be explained away, ignored or denied, but embraced by faith in God, said an expert in the philosophy and ethics of science. In fact, only a concrete encounter with the Lord can provide solace for people grappling with the question of how there can be a God who is good when there is also agony and death, especially of innocent children, said Evandro Agazzi, a member of the Italian National Committee for Bioethics and the Committee for the Ethics of Research and Bioethics of the Italian National Research Council. Agazzi, an Italian philosopher, physicist and mathematician, was the guest speaker at a September 17 lecture organized by the Ut Vitam Habeant Foundation -- a Rome-based Catholic foundation, headed by Cardinal Elio Sgreccia. People's faith and trust in a benevolent God have been challenged for millennia by the existence of death, pain and suffering, especially when such ills were not considered to be the direct result of mora...

The new movie “Last Ounce of Courage” is a statement calling on people to “stand up for their rights and defend their religious freedom,” says a young Catholic actor with a large role in the film. Hunter Gomez, a 21-year-old actor from Arizona, said the family film is about faith and urges Americans to not “be complacent anymore,” he told CNA September 11. Gomez plays the role of Christian Revere, grandson of the movie’s main character Bob Revere, who is played by Marshall Teague. Christian finds himself rebuked for bringing a Bible to school and sees Christmas being ignored or secularized in a town where it was once celebrated by locals. “He comes home and he feels like his rights are being stepped on,” Gomez summarized. “He can’t put a cross wherever he wants or bring a Bible to school or read a Bible in public.” Christian, whose father died in war, asks his grandfather, the town’s part-time mayor, what his father died for. The question prompts the Revere family to decide to stand f...

Pro-life supporters gathered near Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte Aug. 31 for what was intended to be a peaceful, prayerful vigil in support of the right to life for the unborn and in memory of the 3,300 lives lost daily through abortion in the U.S. They were met by a handful of people who want to keep abortion legal and who tried to drown out the prayer vigil with their shouts. The prayer vigil was the first of several pro-life demonstrations planned before and during the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte September 4-6. More than 40 people gathered to pray the rosary at the beginning of the ecumenical prayer vigil in front of the location where the convention was held. The two-and-a-half hour event was hosted by the Charlotte-based grass-roots organization America, Defend Life! and the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition. "We are humbled to be able to offer a visual and symbolic expression of the damage caused by abortion in our country every day. At the s...

The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (Focus) has a presence on 16 new campuses this academic year, with missionaries at Harvard University, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and a new “digital campus.” “We believe that the key to building a better future lies with the young leaders on campus,” Focus' president, Curtis Martin, said Aug. 23. “Our goal is to inspire thousands upon thousands of men and women who, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 30 years from now, will be in positions of influence — such that they will transform our culture.” The Colorado-based organization’s lay missionaries are typically recent college graduates who have committed two years or more to work in evangelization and campus outreach. They go to college campuses at the invitation of the local bishop and with the local Catholic campus ministry’s support. They aim to communicate the Gospel to young adults through personal outreach and friendship. Four missionaries based at the main office in Genesee...

Michael Jones, a member of St. Columbkille Parish in Papillion, said he came to the third annual Heartland Catholic Men's Conference August 4 in Omaha to meet others in fellowship and learn more about the faith of the church. Such opportunities for inspiration and formation were lacking when he was raising children, said Jones, 63, noting that although ages of participants varied widely at the conference, many who had gathered there were about his age. "Maybe we just all got hungry (for spiritual growth) at the same time," Jones said. Similar sentiment -- a strong desire for sharing in faith formation -- appears to have been the spark that more than a dozen years ago ignited what has become a growing Catholic men's movement in the United States, said Peter Kennedy, administrator of adult faith formation in the Omaha Archdiocese's Office of Evangelization and Catechesis. And the movement is being fueled in part by concerns about a loss of male spiritual leadership ...

A little self-reflection every now and then never hurts. Some call it prayer; others a retreat. Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day, co-founders of the Catholic Worker, called it "clarification of thought." No matter how it's pegged, something worthy usually emerges. Stephanie Gyldendan, head organizer for ESTHER, a faith-based organization addressing social justice concerns in Neenah, Wis., finds such reflection a good thing. Members of the organization, a recipient of funding through the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, have begun to reflect more deeply on their work at the behest of the campaign, the U.S. bishops' domestic anti-poverty campaign. And they liked what they saw, Gyldendan told Catholic News Service. "It really brought in a rich discussion on why our faith traditions call us to engage in the community and work for justice," Gyldendan said. Under revised guidelines developed in 2010 as CCHD underwent its own "review and renewal" afte...

They crossed 2,000 miles of mountains and prairie, sun and sleet, city and country to spread the Catholic Church's pro-life message. "They" were mostly college-age volunteers who walked from coast to coast in four separate groups, protesting at abortion clinics along the way, before arriving in Washington for a rally Aug. 11. The walk was challenging at times, volunteers Matt Rochefort and Stephanie Culy told Catholic News Service in an interview a day before the rally. Rochefort's group braved wildlife, including a bear sighting at night. Meanwhile, Culy's group trekked up the Cascade Mountains to cross Washington state, but they remained dedicated to their mission. "We were climbing 1,600 feet in five miles, and it was windy and raining," said Culy, but any adversity they faced was worth it to take a stand against "the culture of death. This is the kind of culture we're working against. I thought of Christ walking to Golgotha. That image reall...

America is a great country and as President Reagan said, "a shining city on a hill." That quote is based on the scripture passage from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount recalled in Matthew 5:14 which says, "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden." Francis Cardinal George, who leads the Archdiocese of Chicago and writes a blog about all things Catholic in Chicago, jumped into the Chick Fil A fray this week, addressing the issue of religious freedom in his blog. He said, "Recent comments by those who administer our city seem to assume that the city government can decide for everyone what are the “values” that must be held by citizens of Chicago. I was born and raised here, and my understanding of being a Chicagoan never included submitting my value system to the government for approval. Must those whose personal values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city?" Amen brother. As our country...

Going to Mass together and setting aside time each day to talk to each other are two simple practices that can help Catholic couples strengthen their marriage and be examples to others, said a papal message. Pope Benedict XVI "invites Christian couples to be 'the gentle and smiling face of the church,' the best and most convincing heralds of love sustained and nourished by faith," said a message to the participants in the international meeting of the Teams of Our Lady. The group, a movement for Catholic couples started in France in 1938, was meeting in Brasilia, Brazil, July 21-26. The papal message to the couples was signed by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state. While pressures on married couples have increased since the movement's founding, the message said, members continue to be committed to proclaiming, "not only in words, but also through their lives, the fundamental truths about human love" and how it is a reflection of God'...

The band Building 429 has an unusual name. It caused me to explore what it meant which I am sure is the point. They are named after the passage in Ephesians 4:29 which says "No foul language should come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for needed edification, that it may impart grace to those who hear." Edification is about spiritual growth and also refers to anything that is uplifting. Whenever I hear that word uplift, my eyes naturally turn to Heaven and I think of God. Have you noticed how prevalent foul language has become. It used to be that your television was a fairly safe sanctuary but now with the advent of "reality" shows, that has been obliterated. Sometimes I sit and count the numbers of bleeps in a five minute segment of a TV program. It is unsettling and very insulting. Why does that person think they need to use so many offensive words? Why has language become so littered with the profane? Don't even get me started on movies. I was at ...

God is so good and blesses us at the most appropriate time. My spiritual journey (especially over the last two years) has provided me with so many realizations. Learning for me is about living the lessons. Hearing about something and then experiencing it first hand gives you valuable insight. Learning to be quick to listen is only the start. I have stated on this blog that worrying is a sin. It is wrong because you are failing to trust that God will take care of you. We all know that the worrying does not have any good benefits for us and certainly has bad repercussions related to our health, both mental and physical. Yet we are usually quick to worry and think about all of the bad things that can happen in any given situation. We have all experienced the burning in the stomach that sets off so many other ailments. It also usually causes us to be short with others around us. In the end, most of the things we imagined happening could never come true. Most of the things that do happen do...

On July 5, the Catholic Church remembers Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria. A renowned preacher and promoter of Eucharistic adoration, he founded the order of priests now known as the Barnabites. In 2001, the future Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, wrote the preface for a book on St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria, praising the saint as “one of the great figures of Catholic reform in the 1500s,” who was involved “in the renewal of Christian life in an era of profound crisis.” The Italian saint, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, “deserves to be rediscovered” as “an authentic man of God and of the Church, a man burning with zeal, a demanding forger of consciences, a true leader able to convert and lead others to good.” Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born into an Italian family of nobility in Cremona during 1502. His father Lazzaro died shortly after Anthony's birth, and his mother Antonietta – though only 18 years old – chose not to marry again, preferring to devote herself to charitable works and ...

In an effort to respond to a "clear and pressing" need for priests, the Vatican released a set of guidelines to help bishops and church communities promote, recruit and educate a new generation of men for the priesthood. The church needs "suitable" candidates and must avoid men who "show signs of being profoundly fragile personalities," while helping others heal from any possible "individual deviations" from their vocations, the document said. "The witness of Christian communities giving account of the faith that is in them becomes even more necessary," because it's a community of believers committed to passing on God's love that "prepares the Lord's call that invites people to consecration and mission," it said. Based on responses to a questionnaire sent to bishops' conferences and directors of national vocations offices around the world in 2008, the Congregation for Catholic Education sought to address a wide...

The Catechism of the Catholic Church now has more of a presence in the increasingly popular world of e-books. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has made the catechism available as a browser-based e-book . The catechism is a compendium of Catholic beliefs structured around the four pillars of faith: creed, sacraments, commandments and prayer. The USCCB announcement about the latest e-book format comes at a time when more active readers are moving to e-books from traditional formats. A Pew study conducted in February shows 21 percent of adults say they read an e-book in the past year, compared with 17 percent in December 2011 who said they had done so. Additional research shows that overall e-book owners are more likely to read than those who read via print formats. In late 2011, the USCCB accommodated that trend by releasing the e-book edition of the catechism through Amazon, iTunes and the USCCB online bookstore. Why make it available through browsers? "Providing the catechi...

Are you prepared to pray for your religious freedom? The U.S. bishops have called for a fortnight of prayer to end the assault by our government on our right to worship. The fourteen days begin on June 21. According to the bishop's appeal, the fortnight will culminate on Independence Day. This special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action will emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty. It is a time to remind ourselves of the importance of our faith. I know that I have never felt more threatened as a Catholic than in the past several years. The intense worldly pressure has certainly caused me to appreciate the freedoms that we hold dear in this nation. None are more important though than the freedom to worship as we wish. So over the next three days, prepare yourself for a spiritual renewal. And come this Thursday, join the rest of the nation's approximately 68 million Catholics and pray and don't stop for the next fourteen days. Who know...

June 13 is the feast day of one of my favorite saints, Anthony of Padua. He is usually pictured holding the child Jesus (history says that this is due to a man, at whose home St. Anthony was spending the night, came upon the saint and found him holding in his arms the Child Jesus, unspeakably beautiful and surrounded with heavenly light)and a book. St. Anthony is recognized as a Doctor of the Church because of his ability to preach plainly on any topic so that anyone could understand him regardless of their educational level. Saint Anthony was canonized less than one year after his death. There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26 years old. The reason he became a Franciscan was because of the death of the five Franciscan protomartyrs -- St. Bernard, St. Peter, St. ...

The Sacred Heart "is a reality that marks the core of Christ's being," Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop John J. McIntyre told attendees at the June 1-3 national conference for charismatic Catholics. It is Christ's heart "into which each of us is drawn, so that more and more, each day after day, each passing year, like his," we are "rooted in charity and full of that light which he has unleashed upon the world; a light that is stronger than sin and death and hell itself," the bishop said. Bishop McIntyre was the principal celebrant and homilist at the opening Mass of the conference, which drew approximately 2,500 Catholic women and men from around the country. They gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia for a joy-filled conference and celebration of the Holy Spirit. "Let us pray with one heart together with Mary in the Upper Room" was the theme of the conference, held every five years. It brought together four distinct...

Pope Benedict XVI joined the international community in condemning a massacre in Syria, and he called for Christian and Muslim leaders in the country to guide their faithful in prayer and collaboration to restore peace and calm. The massacre in Houla May 25-26 left about 108 people dead, including 49 children and 34 women. The U.N. Security Council May 27 condemned the massacre of civilians and, while not pinning all the blame on the Syrian government, it accused the government of inappropriately using heavy weapons in a residential area. In a statement May 28, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the massacre was "a motive of great sorrow and concern for the Holy Father and the entire Catholic community, as it is for the international community which has expressed unanimous condemnation of the incident. Renewing its appeal for an end to all forms of violence, the Holy See exhorts the parties involved and the entire international community to spare no efforts t...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius delivered her remarks as scheduled May 18 at Georgetown University at an awards ceremony during the university's commencement week events. According to The Hill newspaper, she was interrupted after she began her speech by a protester shouting something about "abortion." The paper said the individual was escorted from the room "and continued yelling for several minutes outside." In her remarks at Georgetown's Public Policy Institute ceremony, Sebelius did not mention the criticism of the university's invitation to her to speak on campus, but the Archdiocese of Washington was among those who strongly criticized her appearance at the Catholic university because of her role in the HHS contraceptive mandate. The nation's Catholic bishops have repeatedly criticized the mandate, saying it threatens the religious freedom of Catholic institutions such as universities, hospitals and social service agencies ...

David R. Carlin, Jr. has written an interesting op-ed piece that discusses the campaign to discredit Christian thinking which is highly evident in the current argument for gay marriage. Now, none other than the President of the United States has become a willing vessel for this immoral nonsense. Carlin writes, "A learned friend of mine recently wrote an op-ed piece for a newspaper in which she argued that the drive for same-sex marriage is not simply about same-sex marriage; it is also about winning moral approval for homosexuality. If society, acting through the state, tells us that homosexuals can marry one another, then it is by the same token telling us that there is nothing morally objectionable about homosexual conduct. My friend is, of course, correct. But I’ll add to this that the drive for same-sex marriage is not simply about same-sex marriage or the moral legitimization of homosexual behavior; it is also about the de-legitimizing of Christian morality. More, it is about...

Have you ever really thought about the motive of Judas Iscariot? I was watching an interesting movie recently about this apostle who is known as the one who betrayed Jesus. It was Judas who identified Jesus when the Sanhedrin came to arrest him. The movie attempted to give back-story to who Judas really was. The main message was that Judas dearly loved Jesus but he thought that he knew more than Jesus. In the end, just like in the Garden of Eden, it was ego that caused Judas to lose his way. He wanted Jesus to be a certain kind of leader. He wanted Jesus to ascertain his kingship. Judas was from Jerusalem so when Jesus went there on Palm Sunday, Judas was very happy. It may have been the first time that Judas had been to his hometown in three years. Like many of us who attach ourselves to other people and then depend on their power to define who we are, Judas wanted to show off Jesus. He wanted everyone to know that he was with the King of the Jews. Judas understood leadership in a cer...

The church's first martyr found the strength to face his accusers because of his close relationship with God, Pope Benedict XVI said. St. Stephen, who was accused of blasphemy and stoned to death, upheld the faith and gave witness to Christ as the righteous one proclaimed by the prophets, the pope said during the general audience in St. Peter's Square May 2. Continuing his catechesis on Christian prayer, the pope focused on St. Stephen, who was "accused of saying that Jesus would destroy the temple and the customs handed down by Moses." The saint told his accusers the body of Jesus is the new temple of God; it is in Jesus that God and humanity are in true contact, which makes real communion with God and transformation possible, the pope said. The saint explained how God does not dwell in places made by human hands; the "new true temple where God dwells is in his son," who gathers and unites all people in the sacrament of his body and blood, the pope said. To...