How John Henry Newman Brought Joseph Ratzinger to Great Britain

Take the time to read this gracious and insightful article about the great English convert from Protestantism, John Henry Newman, soon to be declared beatus by Pope Benedict XVI. It's quite good. Here's an excerpt:

[Newman's] great campaign began in 1833 after closely escaping death from typhoid. He felt “God has still work for me to do” – which turned out to be no less than changing the face of the Church of England. Oxford then being to England what Qom is to the ayatollahs, the theological warfare declared by Newman there became known as the Oxford Movement. With the brilliant scholar EB Pusey, he used pamphlets as weapons in order, in Pusey’s words, to bring “to the vivid consciousness of members of the Church of England, Catholic truths, taught of old within her”.

They achieved more than they meant, for Newman was propelled by the logic of his arguments into the Catholic Church. He set up a community very like an Oxford college, the Oratory, not in his beloved Oxford but, as circumstances dictated, Birmingham. Nothing else he attempted in his first 20 years as a Catholic came to anything. A new university in Dublin, editing a journal, even a translation of the Bible, all shrivelled when other people let him down.

By 1863 he was depressed. “This morning, when I woke, the feeling that I was cumbering the ground came on so strongly, that I could not get myself to my shower-bath,” he noted in his journal. “What is the good of living for nothing?”

Suddenly an attack came from Charles Kingsley, the author of that weird tale The Water-Babies, then at his peak as Regius Professor of History at Cambridge. In a magazine he wrote: “Truth for its own sake has never been a virtue of the Roman clergy. Father Newman informs us that it need not, and on the whole ought not, to be.”

This was the shock that galvanised Newman, the “call”. Truth was the whole reason he was stuck in this obscure Birmingham corner and could hardly get himself into the shower. For Kingsley to deny truth in his life was to “poison the wells”. There was no point simply stating this: he had to write the history of his own mind.

The result was the Apologia, one of the great autobiographies in the English language, and a turning point for Newman. It came out in eight instalments, written on the hoof – literally, since Newman generally stood at a desk.

The effort almost broke him. After publishing five parts, he noted that . . . (continue reading)

"Hold fast to the traditions you were taught"

I'll be on the Catholic Answers Live radio broadcast this evening, from 6-7 pm EASTERN, discussing Sacred Tradition and human traditions. Tune in, if you can: http://www.catholic.com/radio/calendar.php

Sometimes, I just kick back and think about how funny the world would be if everyone looked like this

Behold the nine languages with more than 100 million native speakers

Wait. Before you click the link and see which they are, try to guess. Jot your guesses down in descending order from most number of speakers to least. See how close you get. As for me, I was surprised by one of them in particular.

Genesis 11:

And the earth was of one tongue, and of the same speech. And when they removed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and dwelt in it.

And each one said to his neighbour: Come let us make brick, and bake them with fire. And they had brick instead of stones, and slime instead of mortar: And they said: Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven; and let us make our name famous before we be scattered abroad into all lands.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building. And he said: Behold, it is one people, and all have one tongue: and they have begun to do this, neither will they leave off from their designs, till they accomplish them in deed. Come, therefore, let us go down, and there confound their tongue, that they may not understand one another's speech.

And so the Lord scattered them from that place into all lands, and they ceased to build the city. And therefore the name thereof was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confounded: and from thence the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of all countries.

Whither "Fad Atheism"? (Also: Wither, Fad Atheism. Please.)

The hilarious (and dead-on accurate satirist) Catholic actor Kevin O'Brien, a member of Theater of the Word, has done a laudable service by coining the term "fad atheism." Let's hope that, like most fads, today's insipid brand of modern atheism fades away quickly and without much residue.

If you could choose the theme for my next book, what would it be?

With the recent release of The Godless Delusion, I'm now ready to turn to my next book project. I've got several things in various stages of completion, but since I'm currently free to go in any direction, I'd like to solicit your input and suggestions for what you think the theme of my next book should be. Those who are interested in participating, please take a moment to complete this brief survey. Thank you.

P.S. So far, around 230 people have already contributed suggestions through the survey link I put on my Facebook pages. Now it's my blog-friends' turn to have their say. Oh, and you'll see a Facebook button at the bottom of the survey page, which is there for you to share it on your FB pages, if you'd like. As far as I'm concerned, the more suggestions the better. Thanks again.

Are you ready to get deep in history?

I hope to see many of you there, October 22-24, 2010, Columbus, Ohio.

Timing is everything. Someone should have reminded him of that before he spoke out.

No, not the pope, silly. I'm talking about a functionary in the Westminster archdiocesan curia who spoke out candidly about England's serious social and cultural problems.

After reading this article, my first thought was that, to whatever extent what he said may be true (and much of it probably is), it would have been much wiser to have refrained from saying this until after Pope Benedict's visit to the UK in two weeks. This will only make the pope's already difficult work there even more difficult.

Edmund Adamus, an adviser to the Archbishop of Westminster, said five decades of liberalising abortion and gay rights laws had made Britain more anti-Catholic than countries where Christians can be subjected to violent persecution.

The director of pastoral affairs in the diocese of Westminster blamed Parliament for allowing the country to become "the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death." Mr Adamus told Zenit, a Catholic news agency: "Whether we like it or not, as British citizens and residents of this country ... Britain, and in particular London, has been and is the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death." The expression "culture of death", first used by John Paul II, is often used to refer to liberal policies on abortion and euthanasia.

He added that Parliament over the last 50 years had been "the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage, in essence one of the most anti-Catholic landscapes, culturally speaking – more even than those places where Catholics suffer open persecution."

Speaking about marriage and gender roles, he said Catholics should "exhibit counter-cultural signals against the selfish, hedonistic wasteland that is the objectification of women for sexual gratification."

He said "permissive laws advancing the 'gay' agenda" were one example of how Britain had become such a "wasteland." . . . (continue reading)

British pundit comments trenchantly on the NYC mosque debacle

As far as I'm concerned, he's nailed it. What do you think? And while you're thinking about it, just imagine what the reaction would be if the Catholic Church were to try to build a church in, say, Riyadh or Medina. What is being demanded of us here would be forbidden to us there.

(courtesy of JihadWatch)

I don't have time to produce a serious, substantive post today, so this is what you get

It's true and actually pretty funny when you think about it. Dog masks. Ha!

Irony Now (get it?)

At first glance, I thought this was a Christopher Guest mockumentary about CCD

(Courtesy, Richard Chonak)

The steward was "having a bad day," sources said.

I think this qualifies as perhaps the most spectacular understatement of the year, maybe of the decade.

“A flight attendant ran out of patience on a plane that just landed at JFK on Monday afternoon, so he allegedly cursed a blue streak over the p.a. system, grabbed some beers [grabbed some beers!!!], pulled the emergency chute, slid down and ran from the plane, sources said. . . .” (continue reading)

What did the Lord mean when He said, "Do not judge, lest ye be judged"?

We all need to think long and carefully about the message in this sermon. I know I do. And my guess is that plenty of you do, too. May God bless us all.

The problem with vampires

Parenting for Dummies: Rule #22: Do not let your daughter date a vampire, ever.

This is one of those practical parenting rules that you just can’t go wrong by following. In the past, if you found your daughter was interested in a vampire, you could have used a stake through the heart, or perhaps some garlic and a crucifix — the traditional ways to rid oneself of a pesky vampire. However, in “modern times,” vampires are different and do not play by the same rules.

— By Milicent Fairweather for Envoy Magazine —

There seems to be no way to get rid of them; in fact, there seem to be more of them all the time appearing in books, movies, TV shows, and so on. Since we cannot get rid of them and they keep coming, we have to bar the door and not let them in to begin with. It’s common sense, and other than heavenly protection, it is the only defense you have.

Let’s take a typical situation these days and pretend it applies to your daughter. What if you knew that your daughter was dating a young man who wanted to kill her? He has killed others and now has to struggle with his desires night and day to prevent himself from attacking and killing her? And your daughter, knowing about his murderous tendencies, is willing to do anything for him, including giving up her eternal soul. . . . (continue reading in PDF).