 'When in Rome' is the best Catholic conversion movie you've never seen...
Finding a copy of When in Rome might be difficult, but despite its obscurity it is an absolute must-watch — a black-and-white, low-budget MGM picture centered around the Holy Year of 1950. Van Johnson plays Father Halligan and Paul Douglas is Brewster. The picture was produced and directed by reliable MGM helmer Clarence Brown in what proved to be his second-to-last film before retiring.
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“Jesus and Mary don't want me”: Learning from the saints in their darkest moments.....
A while back, I listened to an episode of The Daughters' Project about the importance of not erasing the saints' struggles from their stories, and it got me thinking about Rafael's. As the sisters point out, hagiography that totally glosses over the sins that saints struggled with, or casts the suffering they went through in a rosy, transcendent light, doesn't do anybody any good...
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Do dogs go to Heaven?
If a dog dies and a kid's really distraught,it's not a bad idea to tell that kid, "If you really need Fido in Heaven to be happy, he'll be there." Technically, that's not a lie. But here's the thing — you probably won't need Fido in Heaven to be happy, and that's really good news, because he probably won't be there...
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What you need to know: “Eucharistic consistency” fallout, “Catholic awkward,” and episcopal unity...
Today is the feast of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, the martyred bishop of Rochester. While More is well-known — having become the subject of a movie with six Academy Awards, after all — Fisher's story is also worth knowing. The bishop was executed June 22nd, 1535, on charges of treason which stemmed from his refusal to recognize King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church in England...
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Why be good?
I woke up this morning early (as I always do in the summer) and wondered why on earth I ought to be good. Really. What's the point? Why would anybody be motivated to be good? I immediately thought of some reasons why we ought to be good and none of them really impressed me and inspired me to be good. So why be good? Here are some reasons...
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Vatican Intervenes in Proposed 'Anti-Homophobia' Law in Italy...
The Vatican has intervened with the Italian state in a proposed "anti-homophobia" law, saying that the legislation as written violates freedoms of the Catholic Church in Italy. According to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican's secretary for relations with states...
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Outliving myself: On finding I have vascular dementia...
Old age is the most unexpected thing that can happen to a person. Leon Trotsky is said to have said that or something very much like it. It's the only thing I remember of the many things he is reputed to have said. There's much I no longer recall at all. Until lately old age and me, we were actually were getting along on fairly good terms.
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Go ahead, teach me — I dare you!...
As I scanned the classroom it was obvious that some of my student's spiritual mindset was not on class participation. This behavioral phenomenon is actually quite typical for a Monday morning class. What's even more striking is the faces of some of my students that scream; "Go ahead, teach me I dare you!" If you are a teacher at any pedagogical level of instruction you know exactly what I just described...
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The cannon accident that helped Aloysius Gonzaga become a saint...
Being the son of a wealthy and powerful parents in the height of the Renaissance comes with a ton of responsibility. It also comes with a fair amount of privilege. If that family is among the most famous in Europe, everything you do and say makes an impact. Aloysius Gonzaga (1568-1591), better known by his peers as "Luigi," perhaps didn't quite understand that dichotomy at an early age.
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'Luca' (Rotten Tomatoes 89%) is burdened by tiresome tropes, but it's still a sweet film...
In Pixar's Luca, a gentle, overtly Miyazaki-esque coming-of-age period piece struggles under the heavy weight of iron-clad Disney/Pixar formula requirements and story beats. The charming elements work well enough to carry the film, but only just. The premise of two young sea monsters living just off the coast taking on human form and venturing into the human world for a summer of discovery and adventure
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Lead, protect, teach — the three things every good father does...
In 1994, a team of Swiss researchers conducted a study on how faith is transmitted in the family, and their results were surprising. If a father does not go to church — even if the mother is deeply religious — the study showed only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. Whether a child will remain a Catholic...
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3 lessons to learn from Our Lord's peaceful nap in the middle of a storm...
In today's Gospel, we see Jesus commanding the wind and sea during a storm. He rebukes the wind and tells the sea, "Quiet! Be still!" and a great calm settles. His disciples in the boat, in awe at what they've witnessed, say to one another, "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?" It's a stunning moment for them, but there's another striking detail contained in this Gospel...
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My soul looks back and wonders how I got over...
The gospel today is something of a storm journal, a kind of picture of the Christian life as we journey through a stormy world against winds contrary to the gospel. There are distinctive stages, beginning with the call of Jesus to cross to the other shore. But as we cross there are surely storms and difficulties that assail us...
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Two big tips for young dads in June...
It's wedding season, and bells are chiming out all over the place. We've already RSVP'd for two nuptial celebrations this month, and there's another in July. Of course, these days it's just my wife, Nancy, and me slipping into the back pews and sniffling at the vows...
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St. Joseph was the “earthly shadow of the Heavenly Father”...
Foster fathers play a significant and sometimes critical role in caring for children from troubled backgrounds, but because their role is often temporary, they don't get much mention on Father's Day. St. Joseph has long been referred to as Jesus' "foster father" even though we have every reason to believe his presence was steady and abiding throughout Our Lord's youth.
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When you teach about Jesus Christ, be urgent...
The urgency to teach the person of Jesus Christ who is God should resound with any one because the final aim is eternity with the Father in heaven. As the Church prescribes that a parent should exercise urgency to baptize their infant child within a brief period of time after birth, this same urgency never dissipates to assist anyone develop a fruitful and faithful devotion and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
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Alexa, make me happy...
The packaging of the Amazon Echo boasts that Alexa is happy to help. Happy to help us in what way? What is it Alexa can help us achieve? She can help us become the people we are becoming. For our waking lives more and more resemble a never-ending all-you-can-eat buffet...
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If our culture ever turns around, it will be because Christian men stand up and fight...
The Year of St. Joseph points us to Jesus' adoptive father, Joseph, as the essential model for fathers. Joseph not only manifests genuine masculinity, he also images God's own fatherhood, as Pope Francis makes clear in his apostolic letter, Patris Corde: Jesus, though the Son of God, obeyed Joseph, learned from him, and worked with him, acknowledging Joseph as a true expression of God's own fatherhood.
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'American Spartacus' — On Juneteenth, let's honor this black Catholic Civil War hero...
Juneteenth is now a federal holiday, recognizing the liberation of Black Americans and the final conclusion of the U.S. Civil War. On June 19, 1865, enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, saw the Union Army, which included regiments of armed Black Americans fighting under the American flag, reunite the country and declare them free from bondage.
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What it's like to be an Arab Christian in the Holy Land...
One of the most important things we must do is watch our tongues. Let every word we speak be a word that promotes justice and peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. Our words create the worlds we and our children live in. Our words are words of war or of peace, of hatred or of love, of prejudice or of openness, and with the words we speak we form the reality that will materialize tomorrow.
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Scott Hahn on how Father Scanlan let the Holy Spirit breathe life into Steubenville — and Benedictine, Belmont Abbey, Christendom, TAC, Ave Maria, University of Mary, and more... ...
Dr. Scott Hahn, who holds the Father Michael Scanlan, T.O.R. Chair of Biblical Theology and the New Evangelization at Franciscan University of Steubenville and is the founder and president of the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology, sat down with Monsignor James P. Shea, President of the University of Mary...
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Why sharpen a knife (and a bit about how)...
Certain tools possess primordial qualities. The simpler the tool the more visceral response it yields. When I give my son a hammer, an ax, or a saw it is as if the entire woods demand to become a cabin. They no longer see thick trunks and hanging boughs; they see posts and beams. Somehow, this creative impulse written into our DNA is triggered by the handling and use of these tools...
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Catholic bishops vote to draft Communion guidelines: What happens next?
Following three days of contentious debate, the U.S. Catholic bishops approved a measure on Friday to draft a statement that could deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians like President Joe Biden. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, at their spring conference held remotely because of the pandemic, voted 168 to 55...
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USCCB votes 168-55 to prepare document on the Holy Eucharist...
The voting results of the USCCB's June meeting are in, and the bishops have voted to approve the drafting of a teaching document on the Eucharistic. The bishops voted on a range of agenda items; results on several items were announced at the opening of their final day of meetings this afternoon.
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The lie of LGBT weakness: Corporate America just keeps handing the movement money and publicity...
Of course it was just another example of tokenism and hucksterism by a corporation seeking to align itself with a faddish cause celèbre. Of course the media's and the Twitterati's response demonstrates that for all our demographic stagnation and declining fertility, the relative rate of birth of suckers has not slowed since P.T. Barnum first observed that datum in his famous (alleged) quip.
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This summer, step up and step out into the life-giving practice of wholesome toil...
Summer has begun. As a kind of new beginning, every season offers a natural occasion to be more intentional about life. Yet a season is not a generic restart. Rather, each constitutes a concrete call, if we give ear to the natural world, for attending to specific aspects of our life. Summer is certainly no exception. It is a time of work and productivity. Just look to the plants and the animals...
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The theater of Cardinal Marx's resignation was clearly intended to convey a message. But what?
I was wrong about the resignation of Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich. I wrote here that "it is unlikely that Pope Francis would have permitted [Marx's resignation letter] to be published if he did not intend to accept it." Wrong, but perhaps understandably so. Objectively it remains "unlikely" that a superior would permit someone to publish a resignation letter if he did not intend to accept it...
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Why listen to the misogynists, Paxton? A woman doesn't need abortion to succeed.....
Texas high schooler Paxton Smith gave a surprise valedictorian's address at her high school's graduation reacting to the state's attempt to restrict abortion. She said she needed access to abortion to accomplish her goals. Without it, she was "terrified." Jacqueline Abernathy, once an ambitious high school star herself, explains why she's so wrong.
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Term limits for Church leaders: a policy created to be ignored?
The Vatican decision to impose term limits on the leaders of lay associations is not unreasonable on its face. The new policy addresses the problems that have arisen in some lay movements when long-term leaders abused their authority. It should, in theory, provide for the fresh new perspectives that Pope Francis always desires, and guard against the encrustation of power that he fears.
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A (needed) guide to reading G. K. Chesterton...
People quote him all the time, but he's not always that easy to read. G. K. Chesterton, who died 85 years ago today, was one of the greatest of Christianity's popular writers in the last century. But while he offered forehead-slapping insight, he sometimes gave his readers head-scratching obscurity. I love Chesterton's writing, but I just want to warn you that...
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Authenticity changes lives — and silence doesn't work in evangelization...
I sometimes think the Apostles were complete knuckleheads. How could you watch Jesus raise people from the dead, heal the blind, change water to wine, walk on water, and more...yet doubt or be afraid? Then I realize that I have met the same Jesus and I do the same thing. I have seen Jesus save lives...
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You are the old, the sick, the poor, or will be. Do unto others.....
On the way in, we walked down a hallway where we could just see in to a few of the rooms where some residents lived who couldn't leave their rooms. I'd brought a youth group to a nursing home to sing carols to the people there, and these patients weren't able even to make the trip to the common room where we would be singing.
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What do divorced Catholics need from their friends?
The Catholic Church takes the sacrament of marriage seriously. Because this is so, it also takes abuse seriously, and never requires spouses and children to silently endure abuse in the name of the sanctity of marriage. But those who do leave marriages, or those who are left, are often treated like second-class citizens by their fellow Catholics...
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The 5 progressive stages of sin...
We are living in times when many are doubling down on their sin. As the darkness grows, many fiercely defend their sinful practices. This is especially evident in the matter of abortion. The science could not be clearer that there is a unique, beautifully formed, distinct human life in the womb of a pregnant mother, with a heartbeat, brain activity, alternating sleep and wake cycles, and the ability to feel pain...
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If you can use anything, Lord, you can use me...
The readings for this Sunday speak of God's providence, which is often displayed in humble, hidden, and mysterious ways. While it is true that God sometimes works in overpowering ways, His more common method seems to be using the humble and even unlikely things of the created order to accomplish His goals.
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Meet the Vatican librarian who was the Gordon Ramsay of his age...
This Tuesday will mark the 546th anniversary of the foundation of the Vatican Library on June 15, 1475, by Pope Sixtus IV, the pontiff who helped usher in the Italian renaissance through his patronage of learning and the arts. That makes it an apt moment to recall a figure who plays a key role in the institution's story, even if he's all but forgotten today.
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God doesn't want you to be a “nice Catholic” — he wants you to be a saint...
The difference between being the saint God is calling you to be and being a "nice Catholic person" is, in a word ... risk. I find myself thinking a lot lately about the witness of my parents. By the grace of God, all six of their kids, as members of the least religious generations in U.S. history, are practicing the faith and, even, have active and living relationships with God...
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Father Thomas Dailey: Beholding the Sacred Heart of Jesus...
"The Sacred Heart is so powerful, precisely because it's that imagery of the actual human heart of Jesus that reminds us — not only of our own hearts physically, that we have one, that it's central to who we are — but that it's in hearts that are united in love that we find our greatest fulfillment," said Fr. Thomas F. Dailey...
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As new report is released, Vatican bank chief says “bad old days” are done...
With release of an annual report showing a healthy profit in 2020 despite the Coronavirus pandemic, Friday capped what's already been a good run in June for the Institute for the Works of Religion, the so-called "Vatican bank," including good grades from Europe's top financial watchdog and a key recognition by the IRS in America.
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A real surprise, a curious case, and an offer the Pope refused...
We started the week by reporting the full list of bishops who "signed" a letter emailed to Archbishop Jose Gomez calling for the subject of Eucharistic coherence to be dropped from the USCCB's meeting agenda for next week and for committee work in the issue to cease. Well, it turns out, not all of the bishops whose names appeared on the letter were all that keen on the idea.
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The rise and fall of the Sacred Heart in Dublin...
Just north of Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, there was an area once known as "Monto." From the 1860s to 1925, Monto was the site of Europe's largest red-light district. Estimates vary but some suggest that there were as many as 1,200 prostitutes working in that area. Monto's brothels ensnared many from the higher echelons of society but their chief clientele came from the various army barracks dotted around the city.
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Mimetic desire and the seven deadly sins...
The French thinker Rene Girard had a seminal insight which has shed light on just about every aspect of human endeavor from theology and anthropology to economics, politics, psychology and business development. It's called mimetic desire which being translated is "imitation envy." Basically it is the observation that we learn by watching and imitating others, we desire to be like the other...
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How to defeat dumb pro-choice memes...
No matter how often Christians explain that we oppose killing the unborn because humanity knows that killing the innocent is wrong, not because we've got special insider instructions, the pro-choicers say "You're imposing your religion." When they do that to our secular friends...
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Have fun — it's virtuous!...
Do you take yourself too seriously? Are the challenges of life dragging you down? Even in the midst of all the chaos of life, it's important to have good, clean, wholesome FUN. You need it! Not just to have a good time, but to be holy. I hope this video is an encouragement for you to do so.
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Transgenderism and children's hospitals: When the state comes for your kids...
Ahmed is a Pakistani immigrant, a faithful Muslim, and until recently, a financial consultant to Seattle's high-tech sector. But when he reached me by phone in October 2020, he was just one more frightened father. Days earlier, he and his wife had checked their 16-year-old son into Seattle Children's Hospital for credible threats of suicide...
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The Sacred Heart is a feast of friendship and an answer to your loneliness...
The late renowned theologian Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete used to say that if Christianity doesn't connect profoundly with what we care about — addressing the deepest needs of the human heart — then "you can substitute the Great Lizard for Christ." But I don't know anyone who wants to worship the Great Lizard. And the reason is because Great Lizards don't make great friends.
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Vatican's financial crimes prosecution hurt by inexperience...
European evaluators warned Wednesday that the Vatican's efforts to investigate and prosecute financial crimes were suffering from understaffing and inexperience, as well as the mistaken belief that its own cardinals and bishops were immune to criminal conduct.
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The New York Times admits it was wrong about Pius XII...
When Sister Margherita Marchione died recently, at the age of 99, the New York Times, to its credit, published a lengthy and sympathetic obituary. Less to its credit was the clumsy anti-Catholic mistake in the obituary. A mistake the newspaper then, surprisingly, corrected.
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Selective indignation: Canadian calls for a Vatican apology...
We have seen this pattern before, in the sex-abuse scandal. Catholic bishops were asked to apologize—and with ample reason, because their negligence was appalling. But when they did apologize, there was no letup in the demand for further apologies. Victims' advocates insisted that the Church should sever all ties with clerics guilty of abuse...
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