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This webpage provides up-to-date resources about Catholic living
that I have suggested or recommended on occasion. Topics include: V Catholic news and information Click on the topic or scroll down through the page to the place
where the topic appears and descriptors are provided for each website.
To visit a website, double-click on the button. If you should discover a link that does not work, please send me
an email and I will fix the link (some of which periodically change).
To send an email, scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the
"blinking mailbox." TOPIC: Catholic
news and information
(return to top of page) Are you traveling? This website lists the times for masses
at many parishes throughout the United States and some in foreign
countries. Now, there's no longer an excuse to "miss
mass"! When preparing for a trip, simply click on this icon and
navigate to the location by name or zip code, and the times for masses at
surrounding parishes will be listed by distance to travel.
My sister always complains that the Catholic Church has no
"marketing sense" citing, as evidence, the tremendous outreach
effort on the part of many Protestant denominations to evangelize
people. Catholic.net™ provides an excellent resource for news and
features from a decidedly Catholic perspective. A weekly (or, better yet,
daily) visit to this resource offers Catholics all of the information they
need to be up-to-date about matters pertaining to the Church's faith and practice.
Read a daily newspaper? The following sites offer provide
daily, weekly, and monthly news of interest to Catholics:
St. Anthony's Messenger Press offers a website that includes
daily features (Minute Meditations, Catholic News, Daily Catholic Question,
and Saint of the Day), seasonal features, a prayer intentions area, free
e-greetings, Q/A about Catholic faith and practice, as well as e-newsletters.
For those who are interested in reading primary text theological
documents, the Intratext Catalogue is the online place to go. This
website, containing more than 850 documents, not only features primary source
text by Catholic authors but an extensive array of non-Catholic primary
sources.
The InternetPadre is a website providing an exhaustive listing of
Catholic information. Among other things, the wide offers glossary of
terms, biographies of saints, the Catholic encyclopedia, a review of Catholic
books, and links to more than three dozen topics.
Catholic Online offers multiple links to topics of interest to
Catholics. In addition to Catholic news, media, Catholic life and
traditions, daily readings, a bible search engine, and an online interactive
forum, Catholic Online offers a Catholic shopping center and bookstore to
browse through.
The Nazareth Resource Library provides an extensive array of
links to websites providing information about what Catholics believe.
It is a good place to start when someone has a question as it opens up lots
of other areas once one begins the search.
Your Catholic Voice is a movement of lay Catholics
who intend to motivate, educate, and activate Roman Catholics for political
and social involvement as a response to their baptismal vocation and the call
of the Church to live as faithful disciples. The goal of Your
Catholic Voice is to build a "culture of life" where otherwise
a "culture of death" would go unchallenged. The website
provides multiple opportunities for Catholics to influence the political and
social spheres (for example, stem cell research, school vouchers, protecting
children) through petition drives and lobbying Congress.
TOPIC: Scripture and Catechism (return to top of
page) Here's a short book that explains for non-specialist readers the
basic dimensions of a Catholic approach to reading and interpreting the
Bible. For those who are looking for substance in Catholic Bible study,
this book will inform and spark much thought concerning the Church's major
documents regarding the topics of biblical interpretation, canonicity,
revelation, inspiration, and inerrancy as well as the difference between
Catholic and Protestant Bible study.
The St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology promotes
life-transforming Scripture study in the Catholic tradition. The Center
serves clergy and laity, students and scholars, with research and study
tools―from books and publications to multimedia and on-line
programming. Our goal is to raise up a new generation of Catholics who
are equipped to enter into the heart of the living Word of God and to be
transformed and renewed by this encounter. We read the Bible from the
heart of the Church, in light of the Church’s Liturgy and living Tradition.
In this way, we hope to help people experience the heart-to-heart encounter
that Jesus’ disciples experienced on that first Easter night, when they knew
Him in the breaking of the bread: “Did not our hearts burn within us while He
talked to us...while He opened to us the Scriptures?” (see Luke 24:13-37 )
The Great Adventure is a Catholic Bible learning system that
makes the complex simple by teaching the story (the narrative) of the Bible.
Every day, more and more people are encountering God’s Word through the
methods taught in The Great Adventure. The Great Adventure is a
remarkable system designed to give the average Catholic a solid foundation
for a lifetime of Bible reading. Parishes around the world are finding
renewed faith and increased involvement among parishioners whose lives have
been changed by this exciting study series.
"Daily Gospel" sends a daily personalized electronic
mail containing the text of the Gospel of the day according the calendar
fixed by the Catholic Church. This free service is provided by an
international team of lay Catholics and volunteers eager to spread the Gospel
as much as possible.
This isn't your childhood catechism or the one your grandparents
would recognize. The official Catechism of the Catholic Church has
been designed for adults at the dawn of the New Millennium who are serious
about inquiring into the faith and practice of the Catholic Church.
This particular website has a search engine that allows you to study the
Catechism by topic.
TOPIC: Prayer (return to top of page) One of the renewals of Vatican II involved daily prayer. Previous
to Vatican II, the official daily prayer of the Church (called the
"Divine Office") was prayed primarily by monastic communities and
secular priests. Meanwhile, many laypersons used "prayerbooks" and
other devotional aids for daily prayer. Magnificat® represents a
major advance, one that makes it possible for the laity to participate in the
official daily prayer of the Church given all of the other activities and
involvements that are part of their day but not of monastic and parochial
schedules.
In addition, there is Magnifikid® which is more
than just a complete missal for young people between the ages of 4 and
12. It is also a personal guide that invites them each week to make
their lives a true spiritual adventure by following the example of Jesus
Christ. Each issue starts off on Sunday and then helps a child remain
with the Lord each day throughout the week. Magnifikid®
is an excellent way for parents, grandparents, godfathers and godmothers, or
simply those who are close to a young person to help that individual to grow
in faith. An annual subscription includes 57 booklets (one per week,
plus special inserts for the major feast days) that are mailed to the
recipient. The subscription price is $29.90 (USD) and can be purchased
by calling 1-866-273-5215.
TOPIC: The
Sacrament of Penance
(return to top of page) For a variety of reasons, many people are afraid of going to
confession. Crucial to the Sacrament of Penance is making a good
examination of conscience. This little guide is by no means exhaustive;
it is merely meant to help you people started on (or jump-start) a fruitful
exercise of the Sacrament of Penance. Through your own reading and the
advice of your priest or spiritual director, you can find more complete
guides. The key to a fruitful living of this sacrament, however, is not in
the right guide to examining your conscience; rather, it is in your decision
and constant effort to live in communion with God through a vital and
personal friendship with Christ, developed using all the other means dealt
with in this handbook. In that way, confession becomes an intimate encounter
of love, a moment of reconciliation and renewal in a living relationship, not
just an empty formality, a pious duty performed out of a vague, impersonal
sense of obligation. Anger in its many forms is one of most frequently confessed
sins. It is also one of the most misunderstood and feared, whether
anger is present in ourselves or others. But, anger is as natural and
good an emotion as any other, carrying with it a lot of energy that, if it is
not acknowledged and dealt with, can go deep within the person, leading to
its expression in irrational hostility, rage, and even hatred. We need
to face our anger and deal with it so that we, with God's grace, can move
toward forgiveness.
TOPIC: The
Sacrament of Marriage and family life (return to top of
page) Many Catholic couples have expressed interest in learning what
the Church teaches as this relates to marriage and family life. Pope
John Paul's 1981 apostolic exhortation, On the Family, written after
consultation with the worldwide Synod of Bishops, provides an in-depth
treatment of value for couples preparing for marriage as well as for couples
who want to reflect upon their marriage and family life from a distinctively
Catholic perspective. One note of caution: Many couples have found the
background materials presented in the first third of the document
"rather tough going." They suggest, however, not skipping over
these materials but "wading" through them as the document builds on
this base in the ensuring two thirds of the document where, these couples
have told me, "the pay off is worth the labor."
This is the best site for research about marriage, family, and
couples. Find out what the facts are concerning divorce and its effects, how
to rescue marriages before they fail, the truth about cohabitation before
marriage and its effects upon marriage. Parents should study these
materials and discuss them with their teenage children. Be forewarned: This
site isn't for the fainthearted because the research indicates that the
Church and our parents were correct all along! Check it out...
Also check out:
Thinking this to be one of those "How to spice up your
marriage" tabloids readily available at supermarket checkout counters, I
didn't have much of an interest in looking through Marriage Partnership.
But, the magazine's cover promoted a survey I was interested in reading about
and, as I read through the magazine, I was delighted to find something for
married couples. Styled like one of those supermarket tabloids, Marriage
Partnership is an excellent resource that promotes marriage as a
sacrament with timely articles and very detailed information about "How
to spice up your marriage." Marriage Partnership is a magazine
that can benefit any married couple from newlyweds to elderlyweds.
Don't overlook Marriage Partnership...check it out!
Perhaps nothing is more crucial to strengthening marriage and family
life than adequate preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage. And
perhaps nothing is more crucial to building a strong marriage and family life
than continuing education about the Sacrament of Marriage. This website
provides engaged and married couples links to several excellent websites and
resources aimed at deepening one's understanding about and commitment to the
Sacrament of Marriage.
The Philadelphia
Natural Family Planning Network is dedicated to promoting Natural Family
Planning (NFP). The Network's mission is to explain NPF practice, its
effectiveness, its benefits and its underlying moral principles as understood
and taught by the Roman Catholic Church. Since NFP is in accord with God's
order of creation, the Network's member believe couples who practice NFP have
stronger, healthier, and more permanent marriages. Consider NPF by
studying the Network's resources.
The Pastoral Solutions Institute is dedicated to Catholics interested
in finding faithful answers to life's difficult questions. The
Institute seeks to assist Catholics overcome the marriage, family, or
personal problems that stand between them and the person God is calling them
to be. Providing a licensed professional who is also a faithful,
knowledgeable Catholic, find out how cutting-edge technologies and the wisdom
of the Church can be combined to experience greater joy, deeper
understanding, and personal fulfillment.
On and off, people will complain to me that there are no
"real people" who have been canonized. What these people mean
are "husbands and wives" as well as "mothers and fathers"
who have demonstrated heroic virtue by living out their personal
vocations. While this assessment is accurate generally speaking, that
is, most canonized Saints have come from the ranks of religious men and
women, Pope John Paul II was instrumental fostering the causes of and in
raising to the "honors of the altar" more "real people"
in order that husbands and wives as well as mothers and fathers may identify
with, learn from, and emulate these women and men. One such woman is
Saint Gianna Beretta Molla, canonized in 2004. As a a physician, a
working mom, professional women, and a loving wife, St. Gianna represents all
mothers and can inspire them as they endeavor to fulfill their personal
vocations in today's world with all of its challenges.
On October 21, 2001, Pope John Paul II beatified the first
married couple. Other couples have been beatified separately for their heroic
witness but the married life of Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Maria Corsini
vedova Beltrame Quattrocchi provides heroic witness to inspire other Catholic
spouses to do the same. Click on the picture of the Blesseds to read
Pope John Paul II's homily about the Quattrocchi's marriage as a form of
heroic witness. Click
here for a resource of prayers, devotions, and a novena to the Blesseds, for
spouses in both good and difficult marriages.
TOPIC: Divorce and annulments (return to top of
page) Millions of Catholics are in the position of having been divorced
and are looking for help within the Church in order to stay Catholic and to
regain lost happiness. Lisa Duffy and Vince Frese provide a helpful
resource toward this end, a paperback book and a workbook entitled Divorced,
Catholic, Now What? Originally a successful program used in
parishes, the authors provide answers to the difficult questions that
Catholics face when they divorce, practical tools to help move past the pain
and loneliness, and hope for the future. Testimonials state this book will
change your life.
The Catholic Church expects certain qualities and capabilities to
be present in those getting married. These need to be present in order for
the marriage to be sacramental and valid. The Catholic Church teaches
infallibly that once a marriage is a sacramental marriage, there may never be
another, unless one of the partners should die. When a couple marries, they intend to stay together for life.
Their future hopes and dreams are very much linked together. As time goes on,
they can find that marriage is very difficult indeed. They can grow apart
over the course of time, to the point that one or both of the partners no
longer works on the marriage commitment. Divorce can be the result. The Annulment Process is an investigation to determine whether
the marriage was a sacrament from the very first day. An annulment does not
say there was never a marriage or that children born of the union are
illegitimate. It simply deals with the sacramental character of the marriage.
If an annulment is granted, that means the person would be free to marry
within the Catholic Church. Below are four resources concerning annulments and the annulment
process. Each resource provides information about annulments and the
annulment process from a different perspective. The fourth resource, in
particular, is a transcript from a PBS newsweekly. The piece features
real Catholics whose experience upholds not only what the Church is
attempting to safeguard but also the challenges this presents women and men
who are attempting to deal with the reality of divorce from a perspective
informed by faith.
TOPIC: Catholic parenting (return to top of
page) In Building Catholic Family Traditions, Paul and Leisa
Thigpen present hundreds of practical suggestions for building meaningful
customs in Catholic homes. These step-by-step strategies for creating secular
and sacred traditions for modern Catholic families are both time- and budget-
friendly. Pick and choose the options that best suit your needs and desires.
Easily adaptable to both large and small families, Building Catholic
Family Traditions will assist you in designing activities that will
nurture the spiritual and emotional health of you and your children now and
for years to come.
A child's development of true self-esteem requires both
relationships that support the ability to solve problems as well as the lived
experience of overcoming actual challenges. In The Growth of the
Mind and the Endangered Origins of Intelligence, Stanley Greenspan
identifies and describes the seven irreducible needs of childhood.
No matter what trendy notions permeate parenting today, reality
always wins. Discipline still is critical to character. It still is a loving,
durable gift that lasts a lifetime. And it still is something parents
instinctively know is good for their children. Nevertheless, even the best of
parents are confused. Indeed, no area of child rearing causes more day-to-day
uncertainty, guilt, and frustration than discipline. In Parenting Tips,
Dr. Ray Guarendi who is the father of ten, a psychologist, a speaker and an
author, approaches parental discipline from the perspective of a person of
faith.
Simplify family life with the help of your Catholic faith. Part
magazine, part newsletter, Take Out: Family Faith on the Go , is a
brand new, one-of-a-kind combination activity guide and support tool designed
and written for busy families. This 8-page, monthly mini-magazine offers
insightful, creative solutions to real life issues and interesting, fun ideas
for living your faith. Start making new family connections with a positive
approach!
Catholic Kids Net is a fun and exciting National Club for
Catholic kids 6-12. It helps kids fulfill their baptismal commitment to Know
Jesus, Love Jesus, and Share Jesus! CKNet offers Catholic
formation and fun in two ways: 1. The K4J Mission Pack! Each registered CKNet
Kid receives the monthly K4J Mission Pak. 2. The K4J Team! As a K4J Team Leader,
you can guide a group of 5 to 10 children in fun, theme-oriented activities
supplied by Catholic Kids Net! Team Talk offers creative and concrete ways to
teach each Mission Pack's catechetical lesson, virtue, and apostolic act in a
group setting. Kids have fun, learn their faith, and experience the joy of
sharing it with others!
Gregory Popcak's Parenting With Grace: Catholic Parent's Guide
to Raising Almost Perfect Kids is an excellent resource that challenges
Catholic parents to envision a long-range plan for raising their children
within a family unit that is seeking to be a community of love. Many
parents might find the chapters dealing with disciplining a child especially
helpful as Popcak relates these important matters to that overall
vision. His follow-up volume, Beyond the Birds and the Bees: The
Secrets of Raising Sexually Whole (and Holy!) Kids, offers many helpful
insights into how parents might broach and discuss the topic of human
sexuality with their children from a Catholic perspective.
Many parents find it difficult to talk with their teenagers about
prayer. Pratt and Homan's book, Here I Am Lord (volume 1) is a
prayer journal for Catholic teenagers that is designed to guide them in
prayer. Here I Am, Lord (volume 2) presents stories, prayers, questions,
and inspiration to enable teens to pray about their personal concerns, their
families and friends, and for the world. Topics for prayer include: goodness,
humility, beauty, faith, and courage.
Teenagers need to be taught about love and responsibility and the
Church's wisdom about these matters. For parents especially, as the
primary educators of their children in the areas of faith and morals, this is
an imperative. This website offers insight into the Church's wisdom
about the human body, love, and responsibility that parents can use to focus
their teaching. This website also offers an extensive list of links to
other Catholic websites.
In a question-and-answer format, Catholic Answers apologist and
author, Jason Evert, discusses every aspect of chastity. He emphasizes
that "saying no" to premarital sex is "saying yes" to
authentic love. Using anecdotes from the stories he and his wife have
heard when speaking to teenagers and in their own experience, Evert writes
clearly and persuasively about the questions of dating, relationships,
sexuality, and chastity that young people have asked wherever they speak.
This particular book, in my opinion, is a must read for Catholic
teenagers, especially young Catholic women. In A Return to Modesty,
written by Wendy Shallit (herself a Jewess) argues that her generation has
been sold a pack of lies, namely, that modesty is bad, sexual license is
good, and you're a fool if you don't give up you modesty and your virginity
as soon as possible. Using articles gleaned from popular women's magazines
and transcripts of popular women's talk shows, Shallit exposes the truly sad
effects this anti-modest ideology has upon women, especially as it contorts
their minds into the false belief that being virtuous is somehow "with
it." But, achieving "withitness" comes at a very high personal
costs that are oftentimes left undisclosed. Shallit's insights identify
the anti-virtuous expectations and burdens that contemporary culture places
upon young women (and young men). This is a book that Catholic mothers and
fathers should discuss this book with their teenagers, especially their
teenage daughters.
The New York Daily News editor, blogger, and Christian
convert has written a book targeted at a specific audience: single women
ready to admit that premarital sex is not making them happy or helping them
find the husband they desperately seek. Contrary to popular opinion,
Christians don't think sex is dirty or evil; no, Christians believe sex
outside marriage is wrong. Chastity is more than simply refraining from
premarital sex; it's an attitude, a way of life, and open rebellion against a
culture charmed by secularism, materialism, and consumerism. The
Thrill of the Chaste encourages single women to focus on sharing God's
love with others and growing in grace rather than putting "the goal of
meeting a husband at the center of…thoughts, actions, and dreams."
Eden has found fulfillment in chastity, and she's using her God-given gifts
to help others find fulfillment, too.
I'm not one for what is called "Hip Hop" music because
of its obscene and profane lyrics. (I also don't believe it to be music
but a rant.) Yet, "Holy Hip Hop" exists to take the Gospel to
the streets through the world-wide proliferation of spiritually-enlightening
Holy Hip Hop ministry, music & entertainment to glorify the Lord.
The product is very similar to secular "Hip Hop" but the lyrics are
very Christian. I guess it's better than nothing and much better than
the other!
Catholic.net™ provides an excellent resource for young Catholic
adults. Its "Twentysometing" column provides timely
information about a variety of topics, including among others: courting;
campus political and social news; humor and insights on life with an edge;
Catholic feminism; life athletes; finding real love; a Catholic dating
service.
Read the following reviews and you'll find that many people are
neither happy nor pleased with what "Dr. Laura" has to say about
the way many people have chosen to live their lives. For my part, I
believe Dr. Laura offers a biblically-based and psychologically-sound
critique of many contemporary attitudes that emerge in immoral behavior.
These books provide material for men and women of all ages to examine their lives
and choices as well as an inspirational "kick in the behind" to
"get back on track" for anyone whose choices may have led them
along a spiritual detour. Do you want to build a virtuous life steeped
in character, conscience, and courage? Click on a book to read the reviews:
Doctor Laura also offers some valuable insights about parenting,
once again steeped in sound theology and psychology. I particularly
like Why Do You Love Me? because Dr. Laura reminds parents, in
general, and Catholic parents, in particular, that a child is a gift
of God (not a choice) carrying with it profound responsibilities that
are oftentimes not given the support they deserve in post-Roe v. Wade
America. Click on a book to read the reviews:
Parenting presents moms and dads many challenges. The
Claretians sponsor a website that provides spiritual assistance not only for
moms and dads but also for other family members. There are weekly
meditations, lessons for handing on the faith to children, suggestions about
how to develop a "family spirituality," and other resources to help
Catholic parents become better Catholics and parents!
Claire Smith has written a meaningful, subversive, and very
useful Christmas gift that parents can give to their non-practicing (and
practicing, too!) children. In Catholicism: Now I Get It, Smith
explains everything she wanted to know about Catholicism when she was growing
up but was never told. She believe these insights into the faith would
have made her 20s more coherent and, hence, herself a more coherent and
confident Catholic. Learn about Claire Smith's journey as a Catholic
from her website: http://www.still catholic.com.
TOPIC: Catholic motherhood (return to top of
page) Founded in April, 2006, the Catholic Nursing Mothers League seeks
to provide opportunities for Catholic mothers to gather in homes and parishes
to learn about breastfeeding and mothering, to give and receive spiritual and
emotional support, and to reach out to parishes and communities to educate
about the many physical and relational benefits, and about the long-standing
Church teaching in support of, maternal breastfeeding. Catholic Nursing
Mothers League In Prayerfully Expecting Donna Marie Cooper O'Boyle offers
a pregnancy journal imbued as with Scripture, exhortations from Pope John
Paul II, wisdom from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, as well as traditional and
original prayers. It reminds expectant mothers that what they are
experiencing is sacred. O'Boyle challenges expectant mothers to change
their focus from focus upon themselves to one of heavenly focus, and taking
the nine months of pregnancy and transforming them into a novena, a series of
prayers, which has the power to make the expectant mother's bond with my baby
and my Savior completely different. O'Boyle provides readers hope...not
just for a healthy baby or a great pregnancy, but hope for the world.
TOPIC: Catholic fatherhood (return to top of
page) Perhaps fatherhood is, in any generation, a very challenging
vocation. But, perhaps none more so than this generation. To address
this vocation in these challenging times, Pope John Paul II wrote Guardian
of the Redeemer: On the Person and Mission of St. Joseph in the Life of
Christ and the Church (Redemptoris Custos). In this
apostolic exhortation written in 1989, the Pope notes that St. Joseph was a
quiet man who has very much to say about being a spouse, fatherhood, and
being an evangelist.
Whether a seasoned dad, a new dad, a dad to be, or a single guy
wanting to know more about fatherhood, the Knights of Columbus has designed a
website that focuses upon the role only a father can fill and gifts only a
father can give. In a culture that often does not favor fatherhood or
masculine virtue, this website highlights the unique contributions of men,
husbands and fathers. Why? Men are
different from women. They are wired differently, think differently. They
have instincts and attitudes and physical strengths that empower them for
tough-minded, sacrificial service to those people who count most in their
lives, starting with their families. It is a father’s mission, the
challenge that brings out the best in him, to form in his children the powers
and attitudes they will need to succeed in life, to strengthen them so they
in turn can later protect themselves and their own loved ones. A great
father is a lifelong leader and teacher. His protective, empowering
lessons about right and wrong live on in the inner lives of his children,
long after they’ve left home for good, and indeed long after he has passed to
his eternal reward. A great father never stops being a father, for he
lives on as a great man in the hearts of his children.
Fatherhood presents such challenges to American culture that
being a real father is actually countercultural. The National
Fatherhood Initiative is a project intended to assist biological fathers to
become real fathers to their children.
TOPIC: Vocations (return to top of page) This shortage of priests and religious sisters and brothers in
the United States (as well as in many area of the world) is not due to a lack
of vocations but, more likely, the effects of secularism, consumerism, and
materialism which make evangelical generosity exceedingly difficult for young
people in this generation. Dioceses and Religious Orders/Congregations
throughout the United States are seeking candidates to serve in ministry.
TOPIC: Women and the Church (return to top of
page) Women historically have been denigrated as lower than men or
viewed as privileged. Dr. Alice von Hildebrand characterizes the difference
between such views as based on whether man's vision is secularistic or
steeped in the supernatural. She shows that feminism's attempts to gain
equality with men by imitation of men is unnatural, foolish, destructive, and
self-defeating. The Blessed Mother's role in the Incarnation points to the
true privilege of being a woman. Both virginity and maternity meet in Mary
who exhibits the feminine gifts of purity, receptivity to God's word, and life-giving
nurturance at their highest.
Women for Faith & Family exists to assist orthodox Catholic
women in their effort to provide witness to their faith, both to their
families and to the world, to aid women in their efforts to deepen their
understanding of the Catholic faith, to aid faithful Catholic women in their
desire for fellowship with others who share their faith and commitment,
and to serve as a channel through which questions from Catholic women
seeking guidance or information can be directed. Women for Faith &
Family was formed to assist in distribution of Affirmation, to foster greater
communication among faithful Catholic women, and to be helpful in
communicating their concerns to the bishops and other Church leaders.
Those who belong to Women for Faith & Family are Catholic women of all
ages, all states in life (single, married, mothers, religious), all
educational and economic levels, and represent a broad political spectrum.
They include homemakers, students, professional women (doctors, nurses, lawyers,
university professors, teachers, writers, etc.).
TOPIC: 100% Pro-Life (return to top of
page) Debate over the use of the "morning-after" pill has
often focused on the physical health of women. Less discussed is the
mental, emotional and spiritual health of women who use the drug, which can
cause early abortions. One specialist who does deal with the problem is
psychologist Theresa Burke, the founder of Rachel's Vineyard
Ministries. She reports that many women suffer pain and regret from use
of contraception and sterilization in her book "The Contraception of
Grief: The Genesis of Anguish Conceived by Abortifacients and Sterilization."
Burke believes that when God's presence and spirit are expelled from the
sexual union, it invites a distortion of the gift sexuality.
Furthermore, this split may result in a loss of intimacy and trust, a split
she believes is "felt between an individual and their partner as well as
between the individual and God. The mystery is removed and the capacity to
join with God as co-creators of life is ended."
The International Post-Abortion Awareness Campaign sponsors
"Her Choice," a website where one can listen to recordings made by
people who have confronted the abortion question. These are real life
abortion-related testimonies. These people talk about the pressures they were
under, the paths they chose and the results of their choice. Some chose to
have an abortion. Some chose to have their babies. The testimony suggests
that there is only one honest choice.
Post-abortion trauma is real and it hurts. If you've been
struggling with the pain of a past abortion, please know that you're not
alone. You can find healing. Project Grace offers creative tools to assist
individuals and abortion recovery ministries in their journey to healing.
Many people fear death, an inescapable fact of human
existence. For people of faith, the resurrection teaches that death is
not "an enemy" to be feared but, in reality, is "a
friend" to be embraced. In these fourteen homilies---written as he
struggled with terminal pancreatic cancer---the late-Cardinal Bernardin
reflects upon this paradox, explaining in simple language how faith enables
us to embrace suffering and to discover new life in the resurrection of our
Lord.
Senior Adult Ministry is dedicated to the lifelong faith development
of today's maturing people of faith. The urgent challenges is that all
persons, and especially retired persons, need a personal service apostolate
that stirs their soul and engages them in targeted adult spiritual education. TOPIC: US
Catholic history and the laity's experience (return to top of
page) Interested in U.S. Catholic history? Here are two fine
books that provide a lot of food for thought about what's going on in the
U.S. Catholic Church today.
In one homily, I quoted some statistics about the demographic
composition of the U.S. Catholic Church. In particular, I noted what
people's children and grandchildren believe. Although many people were
startled by the data, upon further reflection, several parishioners said that
the data made sense. Here's the resource for learning about the three
generations comprising the U.S. Catholic Church of the 1990s.
One of the best analyses of the post-Vatican II U.S. Catholic
Church has been written by a layman, George Weigel, who chose the title
"The Courage to Be Catholic" because he believes that is the
way genuine reform always works in the Church -- through men and women with
the conviction and the courage to be countercultural, to be genuinely, fully,
joyfully Catholic. The Church has never been reformed by "Catholic
Lite," Weigel asserts, noting that reform always means a deeper, more
thorough appropriation of the truths that Christ bequeathed the Church -- the
truths that are its "constitution." Not one to mince words, Weigel argues that in the post-Vatican II
U.S. Catholic Church a culture of dissent took root in the Church. And by
"culture of dissent," he doesn't mean simply men and women who were
confused, or who thought that the Church should express its teaching more
clearly. By "culture of dissent" Weigel means men and women
-- including priests, women religious, bishops, theologians, catechists,
Church bureaucrats, and activists -- who believed that what the Church
proposed as true was actually false. If you really think that -- if you
really believe that the highest teaching authority of the Church is teaching
falsehoods and is leading the Church into error -- you're not in full
communion with the Church. And that has consequences, including behavioral
consequences. Find out what this means in The Courage to be Catholic.
A "must" read even if you disagree!
TOPIC: Being
Catholic in the workplace
(return to top of page) Working for anyone presents a variety of challenges, arguably the
most important of which involves possessing the courage not only to tell
one's boss what that individual needs to hear but also to stand up for one's
boss before one's peers. Chaleff's The Courageous Follower: Standing
Up To and For Our Leaders provides an excellent reflection upon these
issues and the importance of virtuous followership.
For Catholics who are corporate managers, Robert Jackall's Moral
Mazes provides interesting, unorthodox, and provocative insights into the
reality of their daily work lives. Readers will discover that much of
what they do at work is disconnected from what they profess at Mass on Sunday.
Jackall's book provides Catholic corporate managers an excellent examination
of conscience.
Adams and Balfour confront their readers with a rather
discomforting view about how evil makes its subtle yet steady incursions into
modern bureaucratic organizations. Especially disturbing, from a
Catholic perspective, is how evil uses seemingly unimportant bureaucratic
functions to effect its dastardly ends. All the while, however, the
people enacting these functions are very much like the civil servants in the
Third Reich who proudly worker to insure that the trains ran on time but
didn't conceive how their efforts made it possible to send millions of
innocent women, men, and children to the death camps. Adams and Balfour
examine several American government and corporate endeavors through this same
lens with equally disturbing outcomes.
Alexandre Havard defines the classical human virtues most
essential to leadership and demonstrates how these virtues promote personal
transformation as well as the attainment of self-fulfillment. Havard also
considers the Christian supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity,
without which no study of leadership is complete. The book's final section,
"Towards Victory," offers a methodology to achieve interior growth
that is tailored to the needs of busy, professional people who are intent on
imbuing their lives with a transcendent purpose. The aim of Havard's book, Virtuous
Leadership, is ultimately practical: a guidebook in the quest for
excellence as a Catholic leader.
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