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Showing posts from August, 2012
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 ā€œvaluesā€ 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...