Blessed John Henry Newman on the English Martyrs

Bee Gees in a box, and other truly primo 70s weirdness

As goofy as this ad is, it gets much better, much weirder than this. Trust me. Take the tour of the other 57 "what were they thinking?" ads. They'll make your head spin.

Me, I was a teenager when this stuff was au courant. I guess that says a lot.

A mother seeks advice on how to draw her grown sons back to the Catholic Church

Yesterday, on the EWTN "Open Line" radio broadcast, I received a question from a mother whose adult sons have left the Catholic Church and gone into "non-denominational" Protestantism. Concerned about maintaining a good relationship with them while telling them that they've made a big mistake in leaving the Faith, she asked what practical things she can do to help them come home. Take a listen.

When you care enough to send the best (but you still have your doubts)

My new favorite Pope Benedict XVI Quote

"It is important to recognize dissent for what it is, and not to mistake it for a mature contribution to a balanced and wide-ranging debate. It is the truth revealed through Scripture and Tradition and articulated by the Church’s Magisterium that sets us free. Cardinal Newman realized this, and he left us an outstanding example of faithfulness to revealed truth by following that 'kindly light' wherever it led him, even at considerable personal cost. Great writers and communicators of his stature and integrity are needed in the Church today, and it is my hope that devotion to him will inspire many to follow in his footsteps.”

— Pope Benedict XVI’s address to the Bishops of England and Wales
Visit “ad limina apostolorum,” January, 2010

Amen and amen. That first sentence says it all.

And, Stateside, it seems to me that there are a couple of National Catholic publications in America that really need to wrap their minds around this truth, though I am not holding my breath in anticipation of that.

A reader asks, "What's the deal with Medjugorje?"

Hello Patrick,

Am I correct in believing that the apparitions at Medjugorie and the messages to the visionaries have never been officially approved/endorsed by the Church? Is approval in the works — likely to be given soon? Or is there a major problem with the whole Medjugorie phenomenon? Thank you for your answer.

David

MY RESPONSE (slightly altered):

Hi, David.

That's correct. The alleged apparitions at Medjugorje have not been approved by the universal Church, though they have been repeatedly disapproved by the local bishops of the diocese within which Medjugorje is situated.

A Vatican commission was established recently to further evaluate the phenomena there, but so far no definitive decision has been rendered, at least not publicly.

It's hard to predict how soon or far off a decision might be in coming. It seems to me that the best thing we can do in the meantime is to pray, especially the rosary, do penance, frequent the sacraments, and strive by God's grace to live good and virtuous Christian lives. These are, of course, the essence of Our Lady's messages in approved apparitions, such as Fatima and Lourdes.

In due time, the Lord will guide the Church to formally pronounce its decision on whether the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje are either authentic or false. In the meantime, let's be at peace about it and let Him reveal the truth about this according to the timing of His loving providence.

God bless you,

Patrick Madrid

P.S. www.medjugorje.net has lots of positive information on Medjugorje, and this other website contains fascinating information that is critical of it: http://en.louisbelanger.com.

Jennifer Fulwiler explains why she converted to the Catholic Church from atheism

Check out her 45-minute talk: "How I went from lifelong atheism to orthodox Catholicism."

Is good. Is very good.

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)