Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

Saint Gianna: A Model For Mothers

Saint Gianna: A Model For Mothers | Helen Hull Hitchcock | The Foreword from Saint Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother, Doctor by Pietro Molla and Elio Guerriero

"A woman of exceptional love, an outstanding wife and mother, she gave witness in her daily life to the demanding values of the Gospel." In his homily on the occasion of her beatification, April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II proposed Gianna Beretta Molla as a model for all mothers: "By holding up this woman as an exemplar of Christian perfection, we would like to extol all those high-spirited mothers of families who give themselves completely to their family, who suffer in giving birth, who are prepared for every labor and every kind of sacrifice, so that the best they have can be given to others."

In canonizing Gianna Beretta Molla this spring [of 2004], the Church officially recognized the extraordinary sanctity of a woman who chose to live an ordinary life-as a professional and, later, as a wife and mother.

Continue reading...

"Joseph and Chico" is a great introduction to Joseph Ratzinger...

... for children, writes Nathaniel Peters on the First Things site:

Joseph and Chico is by an Italian journalist living in Bavaria. You can tell that she’s not usually the author of children’s books, and there’s an excess of cutesy cat jokes for my taste. But where else are you going to read about B16’s favorite Christmas teddy bear, or the time he fell into the fish pond and was rescued by his siblings? The book is a great introduction to Joseph Ratzinger for children, and shows the humble background from which he came. It also has an introduction from the pope’s private secretary, Fr. Georg Gänswein, who, among other things, summarizes the life and work of Benedict in four sentences: “To begin with, I agree with the fact that the Holy Father is a special person, but it is above all because he is a real friend of Jesus. This is important! Here is the secret of his life: only by becoming a true friend of Jesus can we learn to open our hearts to the people we meet and to all the people of the world. . . . Precisely because he is filled with trust in Jesus, the Pope is not discouraged by difficulties and never gets tired of loving everyone.” That much was clear when he came to America. If you know any young children who’d like to get to know the pope better, Joseph and Chico might be a good way to make an introduction.

• Order Joseph and Chico
• Visit the Joseph and Chico website

Doctor, Convert, and Mystic

Adrienne von Speyr (1902-1967) was a contemporary Swiss convert, mystic, wife, medical doctor, and author of over sixty books on spirituality and theology. She entered the Church under the direction of the great theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. The short bio of von Speyr that follows is based on von Balthasar’s book, First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr (Ignatius, 1981), the most detailed and thorough introduction to her life, theology, and work.

Adrienne was born on September 20, 1902 in the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland into a Protestant family. Her father, Theodor von Speyr was an opthamologist. Her mother, Laure Girard, was the descendant of a family of noted watchmakers and jewelers from Geneva and Neuenburg. Adrienne was the second child. Her sister Helen was a year-and-a-half older. Her first brother, Wilhelm, a physician, was born in 1905 and died in 1978. Her second brother, Theodor, was born in 1913 and was director of a bank in London for many years.

Adrienne’s mother scolded her daily; this led to Adrienne forming a strong trust and devotion to God, as well as a recognition of the meaning of sacrifice and renunciation. She also formed a deep relationship with her grandmother, a holy and pious woman. Adrienne also had a devotion to her father, who treated her with mutual respect and understanding, often taking her with him to the hospital to visit sick children. And in her primary school years she began working with the poor and even formed a society with her friends for those living in poverty.

Continue reading...

"Introduction to Christianity": Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

"Introduction to Christianity": Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow | Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger | Preface to the Second Edition (2004) of Introduction To Christianity              

Since this work was first published, more than thirty years have passed, in which world history has moved along at a brisk pace. In retrospect, two years seem to be particularly important milestones in the final decades of the millennium that has just come to an end: 1968 and 1989. The year 1968 marked the rebellion of a new generation, which not only considered post-war reconstruction in Europe as inadequate, full of injustice, full of selfishness and greed, but also viewed the entire course of history since the triumph of Christianity as a mistake and a failure. These young people wanted to improve things at last, to bring about freedom, equality, and justice, and they were convinced that they had found the way to this better world in the mainstream of Marxist thought. The year 1989 brought the surprising collapse of the socialist regimes in Europe, which left behind a sorry legacy of ruined land and ruined souls. Anyone who expected that   the hour had come again for the Christian message was disappointed. Although the number of believing Christians throughout the world is not small, Christianity failed at that historical moment to make itself heard as an epoch making alternative. Basically, the Marxist doctrine of salvation (in several differently orchestrated variations, of course) had taken a stand as the sole ethically motivated guide to the future that was at the same time consistent with a scientific worldview. Therefore, even after the shock of 1989, it did not simply abdicate. We need only to recall how little was said about the horrors of the Communist gulag, how isolated Solzhenitsyn's voice remained: no one speaks about any of that. A sort of shame forbids it; even Pol Pot's murderous regime is mentioned only occasionally in passing. But there were still disappointment and a deep-seated perplexity. People no longer trust grand moral promises, and after all, that is what Marxism had understood itself to be. It was about justice for all, about peace, about doing away with unfair master-servant relationships, and so on. Marxism believed that it had to dispense with ethical principles for the time being and that it was allowed to use terror as a beneficial means to these noble ends. Once the resulting human devastation became visible, even for a moment, the former ideologues preferred to retreat to a pragmatic position or else declared quite openly their contempt for ethics. We can observe a tragic example of this in Colombia, where a campaign was started, under the Marxist banner at first, to liberate the small farmers who had been downtrodden by the wealthy financiers. Today, instead, a rebel republic has developed, beyond governmental control, which quite openly depends on drug trafficking and no longer seeks any moral justification for this, especially since it thereby satisfies a demand in wealthy nations and at the same time gives bread to people who would otherwise not be able to expect much of anything from the world economy. In such a perplexing situation, shouldn't Christianity try very seriously to rediscover its voice, so as to "introduce" the new millennium to its message, and to make it comprehensible as a general guide for the future?

Read the entire preface...

"Bella" now available from Ignatius Press

The well-received, award-winning movie can be ordered online from Ignatius Press. Or place your order toll-free at 1-800-651-1531.

And if you missed it last summer, here is Steven Greydanus's article, "Bella," about the making of the movie, written for the August/September 2007 edition Catholic World Report.                

Edwin Meese III praises "true insider’s account of the life and presidency of Ronald Reagan"

In a piece on TownHall.com, the former Attorney General of the United States praises The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand (Ignatius, 2007), co-authored by Paul Kengor and Patricia Clark Doerner:

Thanks only to the persistence and diligence of authors Paul Kengor and Pat Clark Doerner, only now has Clark’s fascinating story—a true insider’s account of the life and presidency of Ronald Reagan, and especially Reagan’s effort to undermine Soviet communism—at long last been revealed. Clark would never have written the story himself. Only by appealing to Clark’s ongoing sense of duty to Ronald Reagan were the authors able to convince Clark to share what he knows. They prevailed by insisting, correctly, that if Clark did not go on the record, many crucial nuggets on Ronald Reagan and his governorship and presidency would never make the history books.

I know this story as well as anyone. In 1969, I was the one tapped by the governor to replace Bill Clark as Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff. Clark and I were both little younger then—he was 37 years old, I was 38, and he left some big shoes to fill. He had stepped into the spot during an emergency situation when the governorship was faced by a serious sex scandal involving the sitting chief of staff. Clark set the ship back on course. Between us in that first term, we helped pave the way for the successful governorship that followed, and which would eventually provide Ronald Reagan a stepping stone to run for the presidency.

Read the entire column.

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Excerpts:
       
• The Mission: The Introduction to The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan's Top Hand | Paul Kengor and Patricia Clark Doerner                
• William P. Clark: The Quiet Catholic Who Changed the World | An interview with Paul Kengor
• Visit The Judge website for further information, praise, and more.              

Russell Shaw on clericalism

Shaw, the author of several books including the just published Nothing to Hide: Secrecy, Communication, and Communion in the Catholic Church (Ignatius, 2008), has written a lengthy piece, "On Clericalism" (ht: Mark Shea) for InsideCatholic.com:

Imagine a man who wakes up in the morning with a headache, fever, and chills. The symptoms persist and are there when he goes to bed that night. Next day, it's the same thing again -- headache, fever, chills. This continues day after day, week after week, over and over. Finally the poor man starts to think: "I guess this is how people always feel. I just have to live with it."

The Catholic Church is something like that man. In the Church, the illness is called clericalism. We Catholics have suffered from it so long that most of us take it for granted. In fact, we're clericalists ourselves. "That's how it is," we say. And our symptoms persist.

They look like this:

• A pastor lords it over his people, consulting no one and habitually making unilateral decisions. His people are a passive, dispirited lot, quick to complain and slow to cooperate.    


• A bishop routinely goes far beyond fundamental moral principles in talking about political issues. He advocates highly specific solutions to problems that admit of more than one legitimate view and makes no secret of his political partisanship.    


• A carefully planned, highly touted diocesan vocations recruitment program aimed at attracting men to the priesthood turns out a flop. Its planners scratch their heads and wonder what went wrong.
  

Clericalism is operative in all these cases and many others. After all this time, you'd think people would have caught on and taken remedial steps. But even now, many haven't. "That's how it is," they say. And the symptoms persist.

Read the entire piece.

In Nothing to Hide, Shaw argues that clericalism is the key to understanding the sex abuse scandal, especially how it was handled (or, rather, mishandled):

But visible or not, clericalism and the clericalist culture were at the heart of the sex abuse scandal. ... Clericalism did not cause the sex abuse, nor did sex abuse cause clericalism. But the connections are very real. Sex abuse in a clericalist social setting naturally takes on a clericalist coloration, making it difficult to keep the two things separate and distinct. To put it simply, the attitudes and behavior patterns tied to clerical elitism time and against came into play when priests were found by their superiors to have engaged in abuse. (p 15)

Read more about Nothing to Hide.

Chapter One of "The Mercenary," by Susan Peek

The Mercenary | Susan Peek | From Chapter 1 of A Soldier Surrenders: The Conversion of St. Camillus de Lellis (A Novel)

The novel, A Soldier Surrenders, is the story of the dramatic conversion and inspiring goodness of the soldier Camillus de Lellis who lived in the late 1500's, and became the founder of the religious order known then as "Ministers of the Sick", and today now called the "Hospitallers". The story of St. Camillus is one that is filled with an intriguing combination of drama, military battles, sickness and disease, conversion to God, and great charity for countless suffering people, be they dying soldiers, prisoners or patients in the hospitals that he founded.

Camillus is a saint that anyone can identitfy with since he was a very worldly man, a huge man at 6 foot 6 inches height, a soldier who fought against the Turks, and one who had a terrible addiction to gambling that continually reduced him to poverty and shame. He also suffered tremendously throughout his life from various ongoing ailments including a crippling leg disease for 46 years, a rupture for 38 years, chronically painful feet problems, and a distaste for food that caused him an inability to retain it. None of his own great sufferings kept him from always thinking of others first, and striving to serve the many sick and dying people under his care.

He eventually conquered his personal weaknesses like gambling, but not without a long and constant struggle, an example of perseverance that will inspire anyone with their own personal moral, spiritual or physical struggles. God rewarded him with many followers who joined his order to serve the sick and dying, as well as great spiritual gifts including prophecy and miracles. St. Camillus was a forerunner of the work of the International Red Cross, and he used that same symbol for his own religious order. Camillus was canonized by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746, and was proclaimed patron of the sick and of hospitals in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

This excerpt is from the opening pages of A Soldier Surrenders.

Read Chapter One...

When is Ignatius Press Going to ...

I can't tell you how many times I get a variation of that question. Recently, someone asked about religious education materials. "Well," I said, "we're working on more items but we already have quite a bit." "Oh, yes. I am familiar with Faith and Life," came the reply.

Faith and Life is probably the religious education series for which Ignatius Press is best known. Image of God, another catechetical series, is also widely used in parishes. But there are so many other items we have produced that people should be aware of. We're in the process of developing some major efforts to get the word out about some of our newer items and also about some exciting, brand-new projects--such as the Ignatius Critical Editions.

Meanwhile, check out our Ignatius Press Religious Education page here.

Joseph Ratzinger on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord

A short excerpt from "The Ascension: The Beginning of a New Nearness," from Images of Hope: Meditations on Major Feasts (Ignatius, 2006):

You are surely familiar with all those precious, naïve images in which only the feet of Jesus are visible, sticking out of the cloud, at the heads of the apostles. The cloud, for its part, is a dark circle on the perimeter; on the inside, however, blazing light. It occurs to me that precisely in the apparent naïveté of this representation something very deep comes into view. All we see of Christ in the time of history are his feet and the cloud. His feet—what are they? We are reminded, first of all, of a peculiar sentence from the Resurrection account in Matthew's Gospel, where it is said that the women held onto the feet of the Risen Lord and worshipped him. As the Risen One, he towers over earthly proportions. We can still only touch his feet; and we touch them in adoration. Here we could reflect that we come as worshippers, following his trail, close to his footsteps. Praying, we go to him; praying, we touch him, even if in this world, so to speak, always only from below, only from afar, always only on the trail of his earthly steps. At the same time it becomes clear that we do not find the footprints of Christ when we look only below, when we measure only footprints and want to subsume faith in the obvious. The Lord is movement toward above, and only in moving ourselves, in looking up and ascending, do we recognize him. When we read the Church Fathers something important is added. The correct ascent of man occurs precisely where he learns, in humbly turning toward his neighbor, to bow very deeply, down to his feet, down to the gesture of the washing of feet. It is precisely humility, which can bow low, that carries man upward. This is the dynamic of ascent that the feast of the Ascension wants to teach us.

• "Primacy in Love": The Chair Altar of Saint Peter's in Rome | Also from Images of Hope