CatholicVoteAction.org is organizing a petition drive to counter the attacks on the USPS decision to issue a new stamp honoring Mother Teresa. Atheist groups are mobilizing in an attempt to pressure the Postmaster General from going forward with the issuing of the stamp on honoring Mother Teresa for her tireless service to the poor.
FOUL BALL!
By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York
October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!
Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism.
It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as “the deepest bias in the history of the American people,” while John Higham described it as “the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history.” “The anti-semitism of the left,” is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic “the last acceptable prejudice.”
If you want recent evidence of this unfairness against the Catholic Church, look no further than a few of these following examples of occurrences over the last couple weeks:
The movie premiered last night and the reviews are in? Here is a good one. If you saw it, leave a comment so we know what you think.
Father Emil Kapaun, the U.S. Army chaplain who died in a prison camp after saving dozens of soldiers’ lives in the Korean War, is deserving of the Medal of Honor, the secretary of the Army has determined.
This is a great honor for a Catholic priest who many believe is close to being declared a Saint.
The Cardinal Newman Society today praised President Robert Ivany for not allowing a pro-abortion Latino leader to speak on campus. Huerta had been invited to help launch the Latin American and Latino Studies program.
Dr. Ivany told the Houston Chronicle he was “saddened by her prominent and outspoken advocacy of abortion as an option.”
This is a great story to read after so many Catholic colleges have invited speakers to campus who promote positions that are contrary to Church teaching. The University of St. Thomas has shown itself to be an admirable Catholic institution.
You can thank University of St. Thomas President Robert Ivany at University of St. Thomas, 3800 Montrose, Houston, Texas 77006-4626, or call 713-525-2160 or email president@stthom.edu.
Here is a good reminder from Catholic Online for all us fathers
By Mike Aquilina
6/8/2007
HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Our Sunday Visitor) – I’m often jealous of my wife. She’s wise in a way I’m not. Her instincts for parenting are like Derek Jeter’s instincts at shortstop. She can diaper a baby with one hand while tying a toddler’s shoe with the other, all the while consoling a teenager in the midst of an emotional crisis.
And she never seems to lose eye contact with any of them. You figure it out.
I, on the other hand, am incapable of multitasking. I have the one-track mind and tunnel vision that are standard equipment in a certain type of male. When I’m driving, I want to arrive, not enjoy the scenery. When there’s a problem, I look for the quickest fix possible. (There are good reasons why duct tape has become the most recognizable symbol of maleness.)
But I’m not here to beat up on myself, or betray my fellow males. All those things I mentioned – including the duct tape – serve the family well, most of the time. But, like all things human, they have been knocked out of whack by the sin of Adam, that first imperfect dad. And it’s our job to restore them to order.
I can’t say that I’ve returned my fatherly skills to their created perfection. But I had the rare blessing of growing up under a true hall-of-fame father – a master of his game – a dad whom other dads sought out for advice. I am the youngest of his seven children, so I got to see him when his game was at its most refined.
Pop died in December 2002, just a few months before my sixth child was born. So I can no longer call him on the phone to ask his advice. But I have a rich store of memories to draw from. So, I find myself learning this business of fathering as I roll tape in my mind – as I watch the game films. This Father’s Day, I’m drawing the lessons I’m still learning from Pop.
Lesson one
Love your wife, openly and unstintingly. No one who knew my parents ever doubted or questioned whether my dad loved his wife. You could tell by the way he looked at her and spoke her name. If he lived with any persistent temptation to sin, it must have been idolatry.
In matters of preference or taste, he always deferred to mom. Over years of marriage, he formed a neat coincidence of thought, word and deed: What pleased him most was whatever brought her the greatest pleasure. He was happiest when he saw her happy. Her happiness was the barometer of his own. Thus virtue was its own reward.
Even though my mother was an accomplished mind reader (we men are easy reads), and my father was an almost silent man, he daily spoke his mind on certain subjects: my mother’s beauty and his love for her. We should all take a lesson, and speak up in matters of love. And we should back up our words with great deeds, heroic deeds.
Once or twice a year, do something outlandish for your wife: write a sonnet, build something, search out that perfect doorbell she’s been unable to locate on eBay. If you do this, your children will recognize you as the hero whenever they read the great love stories of the world. You are the knight on a quest for his lady. You are Jacob, who worked 14 years without complaint, so that he could win the heart of Rachel. You are the man.
Why do I begin my parenting lessons with a marriage lesson? Because that’s where everything started for Pop. This is what I saw in his love for my mom: When we love our wives, we’re teaching our sons how to be husbands. We’re showing our daughters the kind of men we want them to marry.
Lesson two
Make contact. When your children are small, hold them close and hold them often. Hug them, give them piggyback rides, roughhouse according to their preference.
God wired our bodies to find fulfillment in loving, physical expressions. It’s no secret, for example, that the chemical oxytocin, released during breastfeeding, helps to relax a new mother.
Recent research at Harvard Medical School indicates that close contact with children does something similar for men. When a man holds a baby (or even a baby doll!), his body adjusts the levels of the hormones largely responsible for aggression, overcompetitiveness and such. Babies domesticate us in a powerful way. It’s the baby who takes a man and makes him a dad, and the transformation shakes him to his constituent chemistry.
This goes a long way in explaining my father’s serenity. I don’t think he ever passed up a chance to hold a baby or a small child. Some of my earliest memories are of pretending I was asleep at the end of a long car ride, so that Pop would carry me into the house. I’m sure he knew I was pretending. I’m sure he didn’t mind in the least.
Once, when he was in his late 70s, he was pacing the floor with my newborn daughter in his arms. She had been asleep for quite some time, but he didn’t put her down. In one of his rare philosophical moments, he told me then that he believed there was a “silent language of love” that passed between adults and children. We didn’t need to speak out loud, and they didn’t need to learn our expressions. That’s the language we dads must learn to speak with our bodies.
Lesson three
Stop. Look. Listen. We men are lousy multitaskers. My wife can accomplish great feats of baking and accounting, all the while making her children feel loved. We men can’t do this, and my father knew it instinctively. So he never talked to me with one eye on the TV. We, too, need to learn to stop what we’re doing, disengage from our tasks, make eye contact and then truly listen.
Since I work from home, this is a constant struggle for me. The only sure cure I’ve found is …
Lesson four
Cultivate a devotion to the guardian angels. They’re powerful spiritual beings who want you to succeed at parenting. Everybody has one (see Ps 34:7; Mt 18:10; Acts 12:15). Your kids do, and so do you.
When you’re beginning to lose your patience, ask your guardian angel to help you. If the situation keeps getting worse, call on your kids’ guardian angels. In fact, the system works best if you greet each child’s angel (silently, in your heart) each time the kid strolls into your presence.
Lesson five
Be grateful. If kids today don’t appreciate anything, it’s because their parents don’t. Model gratitude by thanking your children often, for what they do and for what they are. Catch them doing good things.
If we don’t learn to be grateful, we’ll forget that we’re always on the receiving end of God’s giving. And we’ll soon slide into habits of resentment. Gratitude is the simple road to heaven because it makes life heavenly on earth.
Lesson six
Choose battles. Choose few. As I said before, my father was an almost silent man. He held his rages for very rare occasions. My nephew still remembers how my dad shocked him out of adolescent rebellion. Pop used strong words with him, and even raised his voice a little.
If Pop had been a man given to tirades, another furious rage would have been meaningless. But his few, well-chosen words were all it took to make a teenager raise the white flag.
Another example: When my sisters were in college, they were exposed to the latest theories on every subject under the sun, and they’d sometimes come home and “correct” my father’s mistaken notions. Pop didn’t argue with them. Instead, he praised them for studying so hard and listening in class. Then he’d go right on living as he had lived till then, and as his children would come around to live, once the class was over and the latest theories passed into oblivion.
Lesson seven
Give it all you got. When you’re old, you won’t regret the times you neglected your hobbies. You won’t wish you had logged more hours at work. You won’t care what TV shows you missed. You will, however, wish you had spent more time with your kids.
My father worked long, very hard hours for a coal company. When he came home, he was exhausted. I’ll bet he wanted nothing more than to collapse beneath the newspaper.
But he didn’t. He collapsed beneath the kids. My mom says – and I remember this – that, coming home, he would wrestle with me on the floor, let me crawl on him, pounce on him … let me live the dream of any child who’s read Dr. Seuss’ “Hop on Pop.” Eventually, he’d drift off to sleep, while my game went on with him as a prop. All that my father had, he gave to his children – he gave to me – until there was nothing left. And, now that he’s gone, his memory is worth more to me than the largest mansion or trust fund. I will do well if I pass on what I have received.
Champions of Faith is a groundbreaking sports special that will showcase the intersection of sports and faith in Major League Baseball by profiling many of the most accomplished and devout figures in the game both on and off the field.
The film will be available this spring and you can find information on pre-ordering at www.Championsoffaith.com.
It will feature inspiring stories, thrilling game highlights and deeply personal interviews with baseball heroes from around the majors on how their careers have been strengthened and magnified by their faith in God. You can read more about the stars of the film here.
For those of you in the Chicago area, you are invited to attend the First Annual Champions of Faith Awards Reception and Benefit Sunday, February 11th at Soldier Field.
Pittsburg mayor Luke Ravenstahl credits his faith for the position that he finds himself in today. Specifically, he credits his Catholic upbringing and Catholic education.
He gets it exactly right when he says, “The foundation that was instilled in me…are something that I use on a daily basis.”
I love to see stories like this and the previous post on Jeff Suppan. It is a much stronger lesson for my children than having Dad tell them what they should do or how they should act.
Cardinals pitcher Jeff Suppan had an opportunity to address 400 kids and adults at St. Joseph’s Academy in Frontenac, Missouri. The topic was how he lives out his faith as a professional baseball player and in his daily life.
He encouraged the kids “to keep Jesus No. 1″ in their lives and to be ready to be challenged on their faith. (more)
For the men in this story, their faith is what is most important in their lives. Their success on the football field is how the carry out their faith and glorify God with the gifts that they have. Each talks about how their faith is important and how they have add it clarified for them by their individual experiences. Great story that you must read.
Why is it a great story? Because it shows how each of can make everything that we do, for God: to be men and women of faith who happen to be a doctor, factory worker or football player. There is no difference between work and play. How you conduct yourself is a reflection on our faith and has an impact on others. We can chose to have a positive impact or a negative impact. It could be as simple as make sure that you leave work on time to get home to dinner with your family or going to daily Mass over lunch. On the other hand, it could be working until late in the night and arriving home until after the family is already in bed.
New York Giants kicker Jay Feely discusses the moment of clarity that solidified his Catholic faith when he discovered his true mission in life. His University of Michigan team had just defeated Washington State in the Rose bowl in 1998. He had an encounter with a 10 year old boy dying of cancer. The boy’s mother had brought the boy to the hotel in meet Mr. Feely as after a speaking engagement at which she had heard him witness about his Catholic faith. Feely and the boy had connected when he had told the boy that God had a purpose for him; that God has a plan for everyone. He noticed a difference in the boys appearance and expression.
For Jay Feely, that was the moment he understood “my life as a man, how I could use football to affect people’s lives in a positive way. God gives us different gifts.”
It is times like these that we have to asks ourselves serious questions.
Sad news out of Philadelphia today. A couple came home to find a young women being raped in their driveway. They attempted to flee with the victim while being chased by the attacker. The assailant followed the group and shot the three with a semi-automatic handgun. The couple has died and the young women is expected to recover.
Please keep this couple in your prayers tonight as you thank God for all that you have been given. We all hope that we will never be in the place that this couple was but if we are; pray that we have to courage to do the right thing. It is often easier to turn the other way or pick up the cell phone to call 911. This couple has paid the ultimate sacrifice on earth by their courage and willingness to put themselves on the line for another.
Join me…..
Our Father, Who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name…..
Bonnie CLAC was written up in the latest issue of Time magazine. I had never heard of the organization before but thought that it was a great idea.
CLAC stands for Car Loans and Counseling. Robert Chambers works to negotiate fair prices and to get low interest loans for the working poor. This is his way of helping people to get into a decent a car without being taken for every nickle and dime. His clients have saved an average of over $7,000 over the life of the loan. Bonnie CLAC has underwritten over 10 million dollars in loans in the last 5 years.
OK everyone! Here is your chance to nominate your employer for their good deeds in helping you cope with the high gas prices.
I know last year there were reports of companies offering stipends to help pay for commuting costs. Others were offering more flexible work schedules and telecommuting while still others subsidized public transit for their employees.
Let me know why your employer should be in the hall of fame on this issue.
One more state is on their way to banning most abortions. A law is heading through the Mississippi legislatrue that would ban all abortions except to save the life of the mother. Gov. Haley Barbour says he’d likely sign bill if it crosses his desk.
It is only a matter of time until this battle is back to the states where it belongs.
The South Dakota House of Representatives gave final approval today to a bill aimed at banning most abortions. The Argus Leader is reporting that Gov. Mike Rounds is likely to sign the bill into law next week, setting up legal challenges expected to lead to the US Supreme Court.
Please consider contacting Governor Rounds to encourage him to sign this bill in law.
Office of the Governor
500 E. Capitol Ave.
Pierre, SD 57501
605.773.3212
Email
