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Catholic Replies

August 1, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: Regarding our July 24 column, the following comments were sent by J.P.N. of Massachusetts, a former scoutmaster: “The admission of ‘gay’ boys in Scouting goes deeper than most understand. Part of it concerned donations — the United Way stopped funding Scouting because Scouting didn’t want to accept ‘gays.’ Public land used by Scouting for years in San Diego and other places for camping suddenly became no longer available. “I believe the U.S. government also restricted the use of government land by the Scouts, claiming it is a religious organization. Previously, Scout units could tent-camp at most military bases for free, buy meals in their mess halls, and use their showers. There used to be such a base at…Continue Reading

Keep Your Eyes On The Lord

July 31, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Keep Your Eyes On The Lord

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Nineteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a Romans 9:1-5 Matt. 14:22-33 We live today in a world of assumptions. We assume that people are a certain way just because they came from a certain place, because of the color of their skin, because of their cultural background, or whatever other factors we might consider. To some degree this is just human, but all too often it is wrong. All we have to do is to think that someone should be able to assume that all people who profess to be Christian and good, honest, charitable people. We should be, but we have way too many examples that prove that this is…Continue Reading

Statement At The Human Rights Council . . . Consciences Are Paralyzed By A Climate Of Violence

July 30, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Statement At The Human Rights Council . . . Consciences Are Paralyzed By A Climate Of Violence

By MOST REV. SILVANO TOMASI GENEVA (ZENIT) — Below is a statement by Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, permanent representative of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva. He gave the statement in Geneva on July 23 at the 21st Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem. In his remarks, Archbishop Tomasi emphasized: “A culture of violence is being consolidated, the fruits of which are destruction and death. In the long run, there can be no winners in the current tragedy, only more suffering.” Below is the complete text of his statement: +    +    + Mr. President, As the number of people killed,…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . Iraqi Christian Witness In Face Of Genocide Inspires

July 28, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Iraqi Christian Witness In Face Of Genocide Inspires

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK “O Lord, my God, in thee have I put my trust; save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me. Lest at any time he seize upon my soul like a lion, while there is no one to redeem me, nor to save” (Psalm 7). The words of the psalm express the perennial plight of the faithful one who obeys God rather than men. This month we witnessed brothers and sisters thrust, through no fault of their own, into a firsthand experience of the meaning of these words of Scripture. The pictures and news reports are heartbreaking: families expelled from their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs as they take…Continue Reading

Is The Rosary A Prayer Of “Vain Repetitions”?

July 27, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Is The Rosary A Prayer Of “Vain Repetitions”?

By RAYMOND de SOUZA, KM Part 4 The Pharisee and the publican — improvised prayer and repetitive prayer: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and began to pray thus within himself: ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of men, robbers, dishonest, adulterers, or even like this publican. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I possess’ ” (Luke 18:10-14). Let us notice that the Pharisee was wont to do what Jesus exhorted people to do in the Sermon of the Mount: Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Those were undoubtedly very good deeds, but the Pharisee performed…Continue Reading

The Characteristics Of Faith

July 26, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on The Characteristics Of Faith

By DON FIER Faith, or the obedience of faith, was characterized in last week’s installment on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) as man’s most fitting and proper response to God’s self-revelation. Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, concisely defines this assent to all God has revealed as “the free submission to God’s Word because its truth is guaranteed by God, Who is Truth itself” (The Faith, p. 35). Our previous column appropriately closed with a brief reflection on the human person whom the Church sets before us as the “most perfect embodiment” (CCC, n. 144) of the obedience of faith — the Blessed Virgin Mary. Is it possible to conceive of a more apt expression to describe “our mother…Continue Reading

Catholic Replies

July 25, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Catholic Replies

Q. Jesus says that we are to learn from Him, He who is meek and humble of heart. But Jesus was not always meek and humble of heart. He talked back to the Scribes and Pharisees, He drove the moneychangers out of the Temple, He talked back to the Sanhedrin, He wasn’t bashful about claiming to be the Son of God. How can we follow His advice about humility when He wasn’t such a good example of humility? — G.P., Florida. A. In Matt. 11:29-30, Jesus invited His listeners to “take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and…Continue Reading

Jesus Walks Through Trials With Us

July 24, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Jesus Walks Through Trials With Us

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Eighteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:1-3 Romans 8:35, 37-39 Matt. 14:13-21 In the second reading today St. Paul asks the question of what can separate us from the love of Christ. He then gives a few examples of what people might think will separate us from God; anguish, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword. He states that in all of these we conquer overwhelmingly. How? When St. John asks what it is that conquers the world, he says that it is our faith. Jesus told us that we do not have to fear because He has conquered the world. So, if we have faith in Jesus we are conquerors through Him.…Continue Reading

Anglophone Conference On Sexual Abuse . . . “The Entire Church Is Called To Put Right What Has Happened”

July 23, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on Anglophone Conference On Sexual Abuse . . . “The Entire Church Is Called To Put Right What Has Happened”

By MOST REV. DIARMUID MARTIN ROME (ZENIT) — Below is the full text of an address given by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin on the issue of clerical sex abuse. The address was given July 7 at the Anglophone Conference, which took place at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome. The Anglophone Conference takes place annually and its purpose is to address relevant issues concerning the abuse of children and adults at risk. “The greatest harm that we could do to the progress that has been made right across the Church is to slip back into a false assurance that the crisis is a thing of the past,” said Archbishop Martin. ZENIT News Agency provided the text of this speech. All rights reserved.…Continue Reading

A Leaven In The World . . . Journalists, Atheists, And The Pope

July 21, 2014 Our Catholic Faith Comments Off on A Leaven In The World . . . Journalists, Atheists, And The Pope

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The bureaucratic apologists are now in full scramble mode once again to interpret the Pope’s words as filtered to the whole world through the atheist journalist Eugenio Scalfari and printed in the paper he co-founded, La Repubblica. Yet again, we are informed, the Pope did not say what we are told he said. The fact that Pope Francis met with and spoke with Scalfari remains, however, and thus so does the confusion despite the best efforts of papal spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, and others. Scalfari’s manipulations managed to make the news on the Monday morning after the World Cup, despite the soccer obsessions of even the Vatican’s most eminent journalists. Britain’s The Sun was…Continue Reading