Category Archives: News

News

Oldest Monastery in Europe Found?

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Bulgarian archaeologists have uncovered what they believe is the oldest Christian monastery in Europe. It is hard to verify and others make a similar claim (Candida Casa monastery, c.371 AD, Galloway, Scotland & St. Martin monastery, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, c. 373 AD) however no one can doubt its antiquity. It is believed to have been founded by St. Athanasius himself c. 344 AD.  Studies at the Vatican have confirmed that St. Athanasius was present at the Church Council in Serdica (modern Sofia, Bulgaria) in 343 AD.

St. Athanasius was the Bishop of Alexandria and is a Doctor of the Church He was born c. 296 and died May 2, 373. Known as the “greatest champion of Catholic belief on the subject of the Incarnation”, during his lifetime he was known as the “Father of Orthodoxy.”  St. Athanasius, pray for us today!

 

News, Women's Communities

The Attractiveness of Truth

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When Pope Benedict XVI visited Great Britain in 2010, the Press had their pens poised to write stories about the dismal failure of his trip. You didn’t read any stores of the kind because guess what, it was a big success. The crowds were big (even in Protestant Scotland over 100,000 people lined the streets to wish him well) and the critics seemed to disappear in light of the outpouring of love for the Holy Father.

Now comes an article in The Times of London which indicates that the number of women entering religious orders has almost tripled since the Holy Father’s visit.

Laura Adshead, the former girlfriend of the current Prime Minister David Cameron,  entered Regina Laudis Abbey in the USA. A congregation in York, after years of no activity, has six solid inquiries. In another order, three women are entering their novitiate in the fall. Still another has had no novices for twelve years but now has one with two more coming.

Father Christopher Jamison, National Office for Vocation, said, “In the last few years, the number of people applying to seminaries has been gradually increasing and, in more recent years, just in the last couple of years, ever since the Papal visit, the number of women approaching women’s congregations has also been increasing.”

Also, 1 in 5 new vocations are converts. The Lord calls. And women are responding.

News, Saints

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle Found

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On May 2, Zenit conducted an interview with Professor Francesco D’Andria, director of the archaeological mission that located the tomb of St. Philip in Hierapolis, Phrygia (Turkey) in 2010/2011. The search was based upon a letter that Polycrates, the bishop of Ephesus, wrote to Pope Victor I (c. 190) stating that Philip “was one of the twelve Apostles and died in Hierapolis, as did two of his daughters who grew old in virginity.”

The discovery was the culmination of 50 years worth of archaeological work and strangely enough was confirmed by a bronze seal located in a museum in Richmond, Virginia which showed the complex of buildings then existing around St. Philip’s tomb. On the border of the seal is a phrase in Greek: Agios o Theos, agios ischyros, agios athanatos, eleison imas (Holy God, strong Holy One, immortal Holy One, have mercy on us).

It is very touching to see the evidence of the devotion of the pilgrims. The surface of a marble staircase leading to and from the tomb was “completely consumed by the steps of thousands upon thousands of people. Hence, the tomb received an extraordinary tribute of veneration.”

Read all the exciting details in the Zenit article.

Men's communities, News

Where Would We be Without EWTN?

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I once told a priest from Germany that I thought that EWTN had saved Catholicism in America. He looked surprised and startled at my pronouncement.  But where on the TV waves was (and is)  authentic Catholicism being taught? How many Catholic and non-Catholic lives have been transformed through the network?

Congratulations to EWTN which celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 2, 2012.

“There is significance that Mother Angelica started EWTN to defend Jesus Christ, and we were founded on the feast of St. Athanasius, a doctor of the Church, defender of the divinity of Jesus Christ and the ‘Father of Orthodoxy,’” said Father Joseph Wolfe, MFVA, the first priest ordained for the new Public Clerical Association of the Faithful in 1993. “Mother Angelica wanted us to be a spiritual support for the television network.”  He uses the analogy that their cloistered nuns are to be the heart of the mission and the friars and EWTN are to be the voice of the mission.

Today, there are 17 Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word (MFVA) friars who are priests or brothers. Twelve are in perpetual profession. On June 2, two men will be ordained to the transitional deaconate and two to the priesthood, increasing MFVA priests’ numbers to seven.

May the friars continue to be true to the their motto: The lost I will seek out; the strays I will bring back  (Ezekiel 34:16).

News

Catholic Chaplains

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Did you know that four Catholic chaplains have been awarded the US Medal of Honor? The one pictured to the right was  Fr.  Joseph T. O’Callahan, USNR, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism on board the USS Franklin (CV-13), off Japan on March 19, 1945. Seventy Catholic chaplains died during World War II.

I bring this up because Kansas politicians are petitioning to award of Fr. Emil Kapaun, a US Army Chaplain who died in a prisoner-of-war camp during the Korean War, a posthumous Congressional Medal of  Honor. On the Father Kapaun website it states: 

In the seven months in prison, Father Kapaun spent himself in heroic service to his fellow prisoners without regard for race, color or creed.  To this there is testimony of men of all faiths.  Ignoring his own ill health, he nursed the sick and wounded until a blood clot in his leg prevented his daily rounds.  Moved to a so-called hospital, but denied medical assistance, his death soon followed on May 23, 1951. 

The Diocese of Wichita officially opened the cause for his beatification on June 29, 2008.

 

 



 

News

Recruiting More Chaplains!

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I have two nephews in the navy who have both been deployed to the Middle East and and now a nephew-in-law back in the same arena. In one case, they did not see a Catholic priest for 9 months!

Please pray for more priests who serve our young men and women in the military. It is a very  fertile vineyard for vocations. This prayer comes from  Bishop Richard Moth, Catholic Bishop of the Forces in the United Kingdom.

 

O Lord Jesus Christ, instill in the hearts of priests

the desire to dedicate their lives to you as chaplains to our Armed Services.

Give them wisdom and strength, to hear your call.

Give courage and compassion to those who serve you as Forces Chaplains.

May their hearts be filled with zeal and love of you so that your name may be better known and loved,

for you live and reign for ever and ever.

Amen

News, Women's Communities

“That All of Them May Be One” John 17:21

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Some communities believe that as their numbers dwindle, their job is to empower the laity to do what they used to do. The laity however needs to empower them, through our prayers, to live out their vocation, infused with the charism upon which their community was founded. They need to rediscover anew their historical roots in this upcoming Year of Faith. We also need unity among women religious in this country, an “ecclesiology of communion founded on faith in Jesus Christ and the Church.”

A case in point is the recent document issued by the Holy See about the needed renewal of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR). It cites the following issues:

– Talks at assemblies mentioning things like “moving beyond the Church” or even beyond Jesus, and distorting faith in Jesus, His Father, the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Christ and the inspiration of Sacred Scripture

– Letters from the LCWR taking positions contrary to the Church in matters of women’s ordination and a correct pastoral approach to homosexual men and women.

– Silence on abortion and euthanasia

– Non-promotion of the Church’s teaching on family life and human sexuality

– Public statements disagreeing with positions taken by bishops

Let us pray for the renewal of the LCWR and for all women religious who are called to be a symbol, as spouses of Christ,  of Christ’s union with His Body the Church.

News, Women's Communities

Safeguarding the Consecrated Life

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A very thoughtful response to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’  doctrinal assessment by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith comes from Mother Mary Assumpta Long, OP. Mother asks:  Why spend three years assessing the state of the LCWR and then subsequently mandate a five-year plan of change going forward?

Answer: It is the Church’s responsibility, assumed in love, to safeguard the beauty and gift of consecrated life at all times. This responsibility is most acute when the integrity of consecrated life begins to diminish, evidenced in this case by clear examples of dissent from the hierarchy and lack of authentic ecclesial communion. The CDF hopes that, through this mandate, members of the LCWR will awaken to once again “think with the Church.”

Read all entire article and the background behind Mother’s assessment at the National Catholic Register website.

Pope John Paul II wrote: Its universal presence and the evangelical nature of its witness are clear evidence — if any were needed — that the consecrated life is not something isolated and marginal, but a reality which affects the whole Church. … In effect, the consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission (Vita Consecrata, 36).

 

News

Mission of Our Lady of the Angels

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In 1958, a fire raced though the Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, killing 92 students and three Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This traumatic and terrible event forever changed fire safety codes and the lives of all Chicagoans.

The parish closed in 1991 but in 2005, the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George invited Father Bob Lombardo, CFR, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, to come to Chicago to re-establish a Catholic presence in the neighborhood where the population is now the non-Catholic poor. Seven years later, on Saturday, April 14th, Cardinal Francis George, OMI, officially rededicated Our Lady of the Angels Church.

“I didn’t know the history of this place until I got here. To be honest, it was depressing,” says the Rev. Bob Lombardo, an IRL Board Member. But what a difference a few years and many prayers make. The decaying structures are beautifully renovated. The presence of Fr. Bob, the volunteers and now a fledgling community called the Franciscans of the Eucharist, are really having an impact on the neighborhood, one of the poorest in Chicago. Programs offered include after school tutoring, classes for the elderly and a food pantry.

“It is not for us to be captured by death, tragedy and sorrow, but for us who have faith to walk through those moments with courage,” said Cardinal Francis George.

News, Women's Communities

Last Titanic Story

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Sorry, one more Titanic story (written Lord David Alton) because it comes full circle to the first one I noted about Fr. Thomas Browne, SJ, who was on the Titanic but providentially left her before she set sail for New York.

The Titanic was operated by the White Star Line whose chairman was J. Bruce Ismay, one of only 710 survivors of over 1500 passengers (and a pariah for his presumed cowardice). His father’s partner in the business was William Imrie who since he was childless, adopted his niece Amy in 1872 and made her his heir.

After her conversion to Catholicism, Amy embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe. While in Assisi at the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, she vowed to give her life to Christ as a Poor Clare. When Imrie died in 1907, a nun of poverty became an extremely wealthy woman.

Amy, known as Mother Mary Clare, used her money to build the stunning church of St Mary of the Angels in Liverpool, England. Mother Mary Clare said that, “Liverpool people will never be able to visit Rome, so I will bring Rome to them.” What a beautiful testimony to the power and purpose of our beautiful cathedrals and churches so often castigated as a waste of money. Her grand nephew said that his great aunt “deliberately located the church in what was, and still is, one of the poorest wards in England. Her dream was to enable those less fortunate than herself to be able to worship in a setting containing architecture and works of art that would stand comparison with the finest in Europe.”

The Church is now closed but is open to the faithful. This year an selection of photos taken of the Titanic by Fr Francis Browne, SJ, who was himself a periodic visitor to Liverpool will be exhibited this weekend.