Insight Scoop | The Ignatius Press Blog

The Doritos Commercial and the Revival of Voluntarism

Bishop Robert Barron | The Dispatch at CWR

Though the commercial is, of course, playful, it exaggerates something quite real—but NARAL insists the child in the womb should not be "humanized".

I'm sure by now you've heard about the absurd reaction of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) to the lighthearted Super Bowl commercial produced to advertise Doritos. In the thirty-second clip, a pregnant mother, undergoing an ultra-sound, is annoyed by her husband who is absent-mindedly munching Doritos while their baby's image is displayed on the screen. But as the father moves the corn chip, the baby in the womb moves with it; and when the mother throws the bag across the room, the child reacts so keenly and purposively that he decides this is the moment to be born.

Cute, funny, harmless, right? Oh not according to NARAL, who complained (and one is compelled here to stifle laughter) that the commercial dangerously "humanized" the fetus. We are tempted to ask, "What do you think was gestating in the womb? A monkey? A rabbit?"

It has, of course, long been established scientifically that even a conceptus (a fertilized ovum) is already in full possession of human DNA distinct from that of his parents. Moreover, the developing embryo has a heartbeat and her own circulatory system 22 days after conception; at 20 weeks, the baby in the womb is capable of hearing his mother's voice, and responding to light, music, and other external stimuli. So though the Doritos commercial is, of course, playful, it exaggerates something quite real.
Yet according to NARAL, the child in the womb should not be "humanized," lest the absolute right to murder that child at any stage of its pre-natal development should be denied. And mind you, that right, in our country, extends even to the moment when the baby is emerging from the womb (partial birth abortion), indeed to the time after his birth, since many states place no restrictions on the killing of a newborn who has miraculously survived the abortion procedure (cf. born alive legislation). For many people, the bottom line is this: all objective evidence to the contrary, the unborn are not human because defenders of abortion don't want them to be.

And here, philosophically speaking, is the rub.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

A Really Funny Movie About Real Motherhood

A Really Funny Movie About Real Motherhood | Sarah Reinhard | CWR

Moms’ Night Out is a celebration of the everything that parenthood and family life is, including the chaos and the crazy and the comical

So, which of the following was true of the day I tried to sit down with my BFF and watch Moms’ Night Out?

A. I had a “moment” wherein I threw out my coffee, locked the bathroom door, and ignored the noise in the other room.

B. I texted said BFF and told her to forget it, because there was just no way I could endure the whining. (I didn’t specify if it was mine or theirs.)

C. I realized that I broke the screener and used up all my chances to watch the movie, thereby ruining all of our chances to even see the movie (and my shot at writing about it for the deadline I had).

D. My car broke down, people broke into my house, the kids ran around naked, and the internet was down.

The good news is that the answer is not “all of the above”—but just barely.

It was the perfect introduction to a movie that I’ve seen so hyped in my circles that I couldn’t decide if I really wanted to see it or if I would be vastly disappointed.

Within the first five minutes, I knew the answer, and it wasn’t disappointment.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

The Oblates of the Virgin Mary: For Our Lord and Our Lady

Oblates of the Virgin Mary and seminarians at St Joseph's Retreat House, Milton, MA.

The Oblates of the Virgin Mary: For Our Lord and Our Lady | Jim Graves | CWR

Fr. Jeremy Paulin, OMV, discusses the history of the Oblates, his journey into the order, and the challenges and blessing of religious life

The Oblates of the Virgin Mary (www.omvusa.org) are a small, but growing community.  The order was founded by Venerable Bruno Lanteri (1759-1830) in Northern Italy in 1826, and today has 200 members in nine countries, including the United States.  The Oblates today are engaged in a variety of apostolates, including teaching, offering parish missions and retreats, and spiritual support of diocesan clergy.  The Oblates are also known for their orthodoxy and fidelity to the Holy Father and teaching authority of the Church.

The Oblates also have a community for women, the Oblate Sisters of the Virgin Mary of Fatima, which is located outside the United States.

Fr. Jeremy Paulin joined Oblates in 1998, and was ordained a priest in 2006.  Today, he serves as vocations director.  He recently spoke to CWR. 

CWR: Please tell us about your founder, Father Lanteri.

Fr. Jeremy Paulin: From his youth, Father Lanteri had a great love for Our Lord and Our Lady.  He also had a great love for the Church, the papacy and the Magisterium. 

He entered the Carthusians, but found it wasn’t for him.  So, he became a diocesan priest.  He met a Jesuit priest [Fr. Nicolas Joseph Albert von Diessbach], who taught him the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  He discovered that doing the Spiritual Exercises is a way for a person to quickly become a great saint.

Father Lanteri was placed under house-arrest by Napoleon for three years—he was charged with smuggling documents to the Pope—and it gave him the opportunity to advance in prayer.

Father Lanteri led retreats and parish missions, and provided spiritual direction.  He had a great love for the mercy of God, and had a desire to make it available to all through the Sacrament of Confession.  This was during a period of the late 1700s and early 1800s, when the sacrament was not being celebrated as often as it should.

Other priests who shared his interest in the Spiritual Exercises and providing regular access to the sacrament of confession joined him.  He founded the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.

CWR: What is an Oblate?

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Chesterton the Cartoonist, on "When the Revolution Comes"

When the Revolution Comes | John B. Buescher | CWR blog

Did you know that G. K. Chesterton was not only an essayist, novelist, raconteur, and possibly a saint, but also a cartoonist as well?

In 1911, as he was publishing his Father Brown stories and just before his intermittent debating opponent George Bernard Shaw would write, Pygmalion, the London magazine, The Sketch, published a series of Chesterton’s cartoons, all on the theme of “When the Revolution Comes.” Here’s a selection of three of them, illustrating his humor, as well as his unerring ability to find the absurd nub of the radical Progressivist cause.

Chesterton’s friend and fellow writer, Hilaire Belloc, of course, often confronted Leftists with what would, in our day, come to be known as “hatefacts.”

Chesterton here is making fun of his own avoirdupois. However, under nationalized medicine, unhealthy activity, like smoking cigars or carrying excess weight, is positively anti-social and counter-revolutionary.

Shaw, Chesterton’s antagonist, the great socialist Progessive, is here hoist on his own petard, as one who refuses to stoop to the ritual of solidarity with the People.

The Cause for a Modern Prophet

The Cause for a Modern Prophet | Michael Coren | CWR

Prolific and paradoxical, Gilbert Keith Chesterton was as witty as Wilde, as original as Joyce, and as clever as Kafka

When even mass-circulation British newspapers cover a story about the Church and beatification, you know it matters. The Daily Mail recently reported that, “Author G. K. Chesterton, best known for his Father Brown stories, has been put on the path to sainthood – with the blessing of the Pope. Just days before he was elected Pope in March, the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, wrote to a Chesterton society in Argentina approving the wording of a private prayer calling for his canonization.”

I wrote a biography of Gilbert Keith Chesterton in 1988, and it was at a conference about the man’s life and work in 1986 at the University of Toronto that I met the woman whom I would marry, obliging me to leave Britain and come to Canada. We also named our first child Gilbert in honor of the man. (Our son’s middle name, though, as romance must not lead to cruelty!)

Should the great GKC be acknowledged as a saint? I'm not sure, really, but I do know that we are generally not well served by journalism today. Catholic journalists in particular sometimes seem more intent on pleasing their secular friends than in defending the Church. Oh, for another Chesterton, who wrote the truth of permanent things, of first things, of Catholic things. His cause has been discussed and promoted for some time, and in many ways it’s never been so fitting.

Born in 1874 in London, England, he enjoyed the best in British private education but chose not to go to university, which partly explains his visceral refusal to adopt convention and think and write within partisan definitions. He drifted into journalism but once afloat he sailed perfectly, and often against the wind.

On the fashionable nationalism of the Edwardian age, for example: “My country, right or wrong, is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, my mother, drunk or sober.” On literature: “A good novel tells us the truth about it hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” On being controversial: “I believe in getting into hot water, it keeps you clean.”

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Jim Gaffigan on Fatherhood for the Recovering Narcissist

Jim Gaffigan on Fatherhood for the Recovering Narcissist | Thomas P. Harmon | CWR

The comedian’s new book Dad is Fat has a delightfully subversive message on fatherhood and the family.

Jim Gaffigan is Catholic. As he wryly informs us, his wife is “Shiite Catholic.” Does that make his new book, Dad Is Fat, Catholic? Is he, as the Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein put it, “the Catholic Church’s newest evangelizer”? Boorstein seems to want to say yes, although Gaffigan’s style is more subtle than most people would associate with the word “evangelism.” After all, you won’t hear “Christ, and him crucified” in so many words from Gaffigan.

Sometimes, however, evangelism can have a very different meaning. In modern America, most people have a certain view of devout Catholics—they’re either recent immigrants who will assimilate away from the Church, or they’re repressed weirdos with strange ideas about sex who probably hate all sorts of people (women, gays, Muslims, etc.). In any case, they can’t possibly be happy and well-adjusted.

And yet, there’s Gaffigan. He’s open about being Catholic, although he’s no Catechism-thumper (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). He has what many people—especially his neighbors in the Bowery in Manhattan—would consider an unimaginably large family (five kids!) and, while he seems tired, he also clearly thinks the kids are worth it. He has a lovely wife who is very attentive to the kids, but apparently neither he nor she thinks marriage and family detract from the enjoyment of life. In fact, he seems pretty happy and not nearly as neurotic as most of the other comics you’ll see doing specials on Comedy Central. In fact, despite his acquisition of fame, he seems pretty normal. The thought may even begin to creep in: maybe he’s happy because of all the weird stuff that look like trappings of his kooky religion.  And once that thought’s present, it’s not too far away from the thought: maybe it’s not so kooky after all.

That being said, most of Gaffigan’s comedy is not about the Catholic faith. As a matter of fact, he never seems terribly interested in making Catholicism a subject of his comedy, except for the occasional joke about how long Mass is or that Catholics have guilt. That’s why his stand-up and his new book, Dad is Fat, are so deliciously subversive.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

St. Joseph, “blessed spouse of Mary”

by Fr. David Vincent Meconi, SJ | HPR Editorial | August 2013

Scripture and sacred tradition do not tell us too much about Joseph.  Yet, all we need to know is that the heart of his life beats between Mary and Jesus, how he found his truest self between our Lady and her God.

August is a month of transitions.  It is when we honor our Lady’s Glorious Assumption and her Coronation as Queen of heaven and earth. It is also the month most families begin to worry about school supplies, new schedules, and the stresses of having summer come to a close.  August also witnesses the vows of many men and women religious as well as the entrance of new novices into their communities.  It is when our diocesan seminarians report for duty.  And this just in: August has recently outpaced June as the top month for weddings.  It is truly a time of change and hopeful expectation.

To contemplate our Lady’s role in heaven this month is to recall how she intercedes for all of us in all of these various circumstances here on earth.  As we all pray for our new classes of religious and seminarians, for schoolchildren’s safety all around the world, and for all this month brings, I am grateful that St. Joseph now has a more a visible—at least, a more audible—part of our daily worship.  For behind Mary’s tender care of Christ stood Joseph, that “just man” extolled in the scriptures.  Joseph was no doubt the first one to whom Mary revealed her Immaculate Heart, trusting his strong silence as a place where her most intimate secrets and hopes for this new mystery inside of her would be safe.

On June 20 of this year, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments declared that the name of St. Joseph “blessed spouse” of Mary, was to be added to the canon of the Mass, added to Eucharistic Prayers II, III, and IV of the Roman Missal. (One wonders why Rome could not have made this decision last year when the new {and expensive} Missals were being printed, as this was a change already being talked about at the beginning of Emeritus Benedict’s pontificate.)  As a universal and mandatory change, we should now hear at every Mass:

Continue reading at www.HPRweb.com.

Proclaiming the Kingdom in the splendor of the Son

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, July 7, 2013, the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Is 66:10-14c
• Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
• Gal 6:14-18
• Lk 10:1-12, 17-20

Anyone who has seen a sunrise from a viewpoint overlooking a grand vista knows the wonder of seeing the contours of the earth revealed as the light washes over the landscape and chases away the shadows. A world once dark and confining becomes bright and expansive, and a sense of direction and place is enlivened.

In an analogous, but much more profound way, the Transfiguration of the Lord (Lk. 9:28-36) was the light that revealed to the disciples a world bright and expansive. It gave them a brief but life-changing glimpse into the splendor of the kingdom of God. “At His Transfiguration,” wrote St. Thomas Aquinas, “Christ showed his disciples the splendor of His beauty, to which He will shape and color those who are His…”

What does this have to do with today’s Gospel? A great deal, for everything that happened after the Transfiguration and led up to Christ’s Passion was illuminated and touched by the glory seen by Peter, James, and John. And while those three apostles kept silent about what they saw (Lk. 9:36), the Evangelist Luke wanted his readers to understand the landscape of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem in the light of that glorious event.

When Jesus appointed seventy-two men (or seventy, depending on the translation), he deliberately patterned his action after the selection of seventy elders by Moses. Those men were meant to share in the spirit given to Moses so that, as God told Moses, “they may share the burden of the people with you” (Num. 11:16-17). Earlier, Jesus had given the Twelve “power and authority” over demons and illness, then sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick (Lk. 9:1-6). Some of the Church fathers understood this as an establishment of apostolic authority, whereas the selection of the seventy pointed toward the establishment of the priesthood, for priests are co-workers who assist the bishops in their duties (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 886, 939).

But this action not only foreshadowed the priesthood, it revealed even further the prophetic, missionary character of Jesus’ work. Sent to proclaim the presence of the kingdom of the God, the disciples were given strict, even ascetic, directives: carry no money, carry no sandals, greet no one along the way. They were exhorted to elicit a response, a decision for or against Jesus and his message. “Jesus’ own understanding of his and his followers’ identity,” explains N.T. Wright in Jesus and the Victory of God (Fortress Press, 1996), “went far beyond the picture of a teacher of miscellaneous truths or maxims. The corporate identity of the new movement belonged firmly within the world of Jewish eschatological expectations.”

The kingdom of God is the fulfillment of those expectations about the meaning of history and God’s plan for mankind—and the Church is “the seed and beginning of this kingdom” (CCC, 567, 669). Christ established the kingdom by his preaching and his Passion, and he entrusted the message of the kingdom to the Twelve and to the Church so it would grow and so it could be seen for those with eyes to see. “In the word, in the works, and in the presence of Christ, this kingdom was clearly open to the view of men” (Lumen Gentium, 5).

But men will only see it if they turn toward the light of the Lord, humbling gazing, if you will, upon the Transfiguration so they might be transformed. This transformation, St. Paul told the Galatians, comes by the way of “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” which brings about a new creation. Paul’s blessing—“Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule”—was a direct continuation of the peace granted to those who accepted the disciples sent forth by Jesus: “Peace to this household.”

And every household that accepts Jesus is taken into the household of God, the Church, which Paul called “the Israel of God.” Within it, a world once dark and confining becomes bright and expansive.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the July 4, 2010, edition of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Fighting the Culture of Death, One Katie At a Time

Fighting the Culture of Death, One Katie At a Time | Michael Coren | CWR

As Belgium and other countries embrace euthanasia for children, Catholics must stand up for the most vulnerable among us.

Belgium is a troubled country on any number of levels. Its unity has been tenuous for decades, it is increasingly challenged by an Islamic immigrant community that rejects European virtues, and just like its neighbor, Holland, it is clumsily eager to embrace the latest in eugenics and social engineering. Only last month the Belgian Federal Parliament seriously considered legalizing euthanasia for children and it now appears it is “about to expand its controversial ‘right to die’ policies to include access to euthanasia for some gravely ill children.”

Don’t be shocked. I have debated “assisted suicide” zealots who believe that if depressed teenagers want to take their own lives—and, tragically, many teens travel that bumpy road of despair at some troubled point—they should be empowered by the state to do so. Poor old Belgium, once so faithful and brave.

I mention this because I have, I suppose, a particular insight into how terrifying euthanasia can be and into the vulnerability of those who it especially horrifies.

Let me introduce you to Katie, who is what society describes as “handicapped”. She was born several months premature and spent a long time in hospital. She came home accompanied by a nursing team, to a house wired for oxygen. It’s ironic, in that the same hospital advised Katie’s mother to abort her because there were likely, they said, to be “complications.”

I know all this because her mother is my sister, and Katie is my niece.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Fifty Years Later–Vatican II’s Unfinished Business

Fifty Years Later–Vatican II’s Unfinished Business | Fr. Regis Scanlon, O.F.M. Cap. | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

Today, 50 years after the opening of Vatican II, the misinterpretation of one of its most salient documents, Lumen Gentium, continues to drive a number of Catholics in the United States into one of two camps, the “right” or the “left.”

Fifty years after the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Church in the United States is in the throes of a struggle. Loyal Catholics are showing renewed vigor and vitality, and are helping the Church to move forward in unity. At the same time, the Church is also being exhausted and drained from within by a vocal movement of other Catholics who continue to dissent from Church teachings, particularly the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.

Dissent is entrenched in the Church in the U.S.
For most American Catholics over 50, it is an accepted fact that dissent from the magisterium of the Church is widespread, tolerated, and, in some quarters, even welcomed. The breaking point, of course, was Paul VI’s 1968 prophetic encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which condemned contraception as “intrinsically disordered.”  The encyclical became one of the most controversial documents of the century, if not many centuries. The widespread dissent by Catholics was led with enthusiasm by huge numbers of Catholic theologians, professors and intellectuals. The onslaught of bright, articulate academics turning on the Pope encouraged many Catholics in the pews to do the same.

Why would so many educated Catholics—who should have been ready and able to defend the teaching authority of the Church—turn against the Pope with such force? How could they justify it?

The most popular argument was that permission to dissent had been given by none other than the Second Vatican Council. The dissenters claimed that “the spirit of Vatican II,” along with theological perspectives of the Council, supported their argument that individual Catholics have a right to dissent from “non-infallible” Church teachings—even authoritative encyclicals like Paul VI’s “Humanae Vitae”—if they felt they had a good enough reason.

Unfortunately, this false notion was unwittingly given a boost by none other than the bishops of the United States. On November 15, 1968, a few months after the promulgation of Humanae Vitae, the bishops issued their pastoral letter, “Human Life in Our Day,” to help Catholics interpret the Pope’s encyclical.  The bishops said in no. 51 of that document that in some cases, a Catholic could dissent from “non-infallible authentic doctrine” of the magisterium. They explained: “The expression of theological dissent from the magisterium is in order only if the reasons are serious and well-founded, if the manner of the dissent does not question or impugn the teaching authority of the Church, and is such as not to give scandal.”

Continue reading at HPRweb.com.

Ignatius Press releases first Pope biography today as e-book, April 10th in stores

Tornielli book on Pope Francis publishes first in the world, ahead of schedule

ATLANTA, March 27, 2013 – The much-anticipated first biography on the new Pope is here, one month ahead of schedule, and the author is Vatican insider, Andrea Tornielli, who as Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press describes, is “one of the best, if not the best, Vatican reporter out there. Period. He is  the best-sourced, most accurate and one of the most knowledgeable reporters among the unique band of ‘Vaticanisti’ who travel with the pope, digest theological treatises as bedtime reading and count cardinals and monsignors as friends.”

Available today in English, first as an e-book and in hardcover April 10, “Francis, Pope of a New World” (Ignatius Press, $19.95), is a fascinating, definitive and complete biography on Pope Francis. It provides the keys to understanding the man who was a surprise choice, even a revolutionary choice, for pope. It is the story of why the cardinal electors of the Catholic Church set aside political and diplomatic calculations to elect a pope to lead the renewal and purification of the worldwide Church of our time.

There will be other biographies on the Pope, but none will provide the kind of insight into the new leader of over one billion Catholics as this one.

• What led to the election of the first Latin American, first Jesuit pope?
• What is the background against which his first papal acts find their context?
• What was his family life like and how did his family view his decision to become a priest?
• How did Jorge Bergoglio minister as a Jesuit priest and as an archbishop in violent, horrible times?

These questions and more are addressed in the book. In addition, there is invaluable background on Pope Benedict’s resignation and the process of electing Pope Francis.

Tornielli has set the bar high with this biography on Pope Francis.  More than a journalist covering a beat, he lives and breathes his subject. “He has been fascinated by the church since he was 14, and it shows. Yes, he has a degree in classic Greek. But more importantly, he knows the Vatican and the people who inhabit it, and uses that knowledge to inform the world about what goes on in the frescoed halls of the Apostolic Palace. If anyone needed evidence, take his reporting of the conclave that elected Pope Francis the 265th Successor of Peter: His reports about the behind-the-scenes negotiations before the conclave were cited by cardinals as the reason for imposing a media blackout on the process. It didn't work. Tornielli kept on reporting, providing a modicum of transparency on the most secretive of processes,” says Winfield.

For an interview with Tornielli, contact Lisa Wheeler (770-591-0045) or [email protected]) or Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or [email protected]) of Carmel Communications.

Conclave Bingo!

From CatholicMemes.com:

Ecumenical Humor Break: "Choose Your Pope!"

Sometimes a short and very funny animated sketch by hilarious Lutherans is worth a thousand (or more) words:

Sometimes you simply have to laugh...

... otherwise you might be forced to take seriously the foolishness that seems to dominate the internet, the airwaves, and the supposedly serious, important newspapers of note. So, as something of a humor break (and, no, I'm not going to reference the Grammys or the State of the Union Address, despite the ripe material), here are three stories that had me chuckling recently.

• On the day the news broke in Rome, Cliff Kinkaid of the conservative group, Accuracy in Media, penned a rather breathless piece titled, "Pope’s Possible Successor Promotes Marxist for Sainthood". When I first saw the headline, I thought it must be refering to some Italian or French Cardinal. Nope, not at all:

American Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan, reported to be in the running to replace Pope Benedict XVI as the head of the Roman Catholic Church, is usually described as a “conservative” because he has strongly criticized President Obama’s attacks on religious liberty and federal intrusions into church affairs. But Dolan is also the leader of the campaign to promote Marxist Dorothy Day for Sainthood.

One report asks, “Could Timothy Dolan Become The First American Pope?” Dolan, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB,) is considered the voice of U.S. Catholicism.

But Carol Byrne, author of The Catholic Worker Movement (1933-1980): A Critical Analysis, says Dolan manipulated a vote by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops last November to move forward with the canonization of Dorothy Day, even though The New York Times itself noted that some of the Bishops said “she had an abortion as a young woman and at one point flirted with joining the Communist Party.”

In other news, it was recently revealed that one of the Church's greatest Doctors was a New Age-y gnostic who had a longtime mistress. But, hey, who cares about St. Augustine's life prior to conversion when we have Dorothy Day's life prior to conversion? The funny thing, however, was that Pope Benedict XVI, in his February 14th Ash Wednesday general audience, said the following:

Continue reading on the CWR blog.

Lent: Why the Christian Must Deny Himself

 

Lent: Why the Christian Must Deny Himself | Brother Austin G. Murphy, O.S.B.

We still ask ourselves as Ash Wednesday approaches, "What am I doing for Lent? What am I giving up for Lent?" We can be grateful that the customs of giving up something for Lent and abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent have survived in our secular society. But, unfortunately, it is doubtful that many practice them with understanding. Many perform them in good faith and with a vague sense of their value, and this is commendable. But if these acts of self-denial were better understood, they could be practiced with greater profit. Otherwise, they run the risk of falling out of use. 

A greater understanding of the practice of self-denial would naturally benefit those who customarily exercise it during Lent. Better comprehension of self-denial would also positively affect the way Christians live throughout the year. The importance of self-denial can be seen if we look specifically at fasting and use it as an example of self-denial in general. Indeed, fasting, for those who can practice it, is a crucial part of voluntary self-denial. 

But since we live in a consumerist society, where self-indulgence rather than self-denial is the rule, any suggestion to fast will sound strange to many ears. It is bound to arouse the questions: Why is fasting important? Why must a Christian practice it? Using these questions as a framework, we can construct one explanation, among many possible ones, of the importance of self-denial.

To answer the question "Why must the Christian fast?" we should first note that fasting, in itself, is neither good nor bad, but is morally neutral. But fasting is good insofar as it achieves a good end. Its value lies in it being an effective means for attaining greater virtue. And because it is a means for gaining virtue– and every Christian ought to be striving to grow in virtue–there is good reason to fast. 

Some people point out that fasting is not the most important thing and, therefore, they do not need to worry about it. Such reasoning displays a misunderstanding of our situation. But, since the excuse is common enough, some comments to refute it are worthwhile. 

Doing Small Things Well 

First, while it is true that fasting is not the most important thing in the world, this does not make fasting irrelevant or unimportant. There are, certainly, more urgent things to abstain from than food or drink, such as maliciousness, backbiting, grumbling, etc. But a person is mistaken to conclude that he therefore does not need to fast. He should not believe that he can ignore fasting and instead abstain in more important matters. Rather, fasting and avoiding those other vices go hand in hand. Fasting must accompany efforts to abstain in greater matters. For one thing, fasting teaches a person how to abstain in the first place. 

Moreover, it is presumptuous for a person to try to practice the greater virtues without first paying attention to the smaller ones. As Our Lord says, "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much" [1] and so can be trusted with greater things. Therefore, if a person wants to be able to abstain in greater matters he must not neglect to abstain in smaller matters, such as through fasting. 

Finally, there is a subtle form of pride present in the person who says that because something is not very important, he does not need to do it. Whoever makes such a claim implies that he does only important things. But the average person is rarely called to do very important things. Accordingly, each person is more likely to be judged on how he did the little, everyday things. Even when, rarely, a person is called to do a great work, how often does he fall short? All the more reason, then, for a person to make sure that he at least does the small things well. Furthermore, if he truly loves the Lord, he will gladly do anything–big or small–for him. So, in the end, saying that fasting is not the most important thing is not a good excuse for avoiding it. 

What, then, is the reason for fasting?

Monday Morning Catholic Quarterback

by Carl E. Olson | Catholic World Report blog

Some insist football is like a religion, but that is surely nonsensical. If it really were so, football fans would dress up in special clothing, travel to large and ornate buildings, join together in feasting and chanting, express praise for past heroes, scream and shout and cry like fanatics, and set aside one day a year for a great feast commemorating the biggest and best the sport has to offer. 

What's that you say? Oh. Right.

Of course, there are obvious differences. One is that many Americans are apparently willing to go to the rack (either this kind or that kind) for their team, make fools of themselves for their team, get into heated arguments in defense of their team—all of which would be considered narrow-minded, negative, triumphalistic, and fanatical if done for one's faith and church.  

Don't misunderstand: I have nothing against the Sacred High Day Super Bowl Sunday. I readily confess that I watched the commercials and I even caught some of the game, although I went to get some coffee during the second, unplanned halftime show. Personally, I thought the lights should have gone out during the first halftime show, which appears to have been inspired by a, well, nevermind.  

There have been a number of intriguing story lines over the past two weeks that have caught my attention, despite a schedule filled with time in Hawaii, golfing jaunts, and interviews with Vogue.. A couple of them even have something to with football. Here are a few short routes and a couple of runs between the tackles

• "Hey, God is on his side!" | Am I the only one who has wondered why ESPN and other entertainment networks have spent weeks giggling and snorting over a college football player's imaginary girlfriend but have a self-imposed gag order when it comes to a law-challenged pro player who has fathered six kids by four different women—and talks endlessly about "God"? Manti T’eo may have made some big and silly mistakes, but his sin was having all of this go viral before being a Super Bowl MVP, which is the ultimate "Ticket to Puff Questions Tossed by Adoring Media Types". 

• The Two Brothers | How about the Harbaugh brothers. Neat story in many ways. Did you know that Jim and John are Catholic? Speaking of Catholic brothers, how about the recent back and forth betweenCardinal Roger Mahony and Archbishop Jose Gomez?

Continue reading on the CWR blog.

The Glory Days of “Guy Nation”

The Glory Days of “Guy Nation” | Mark McCormick | Catholic World Report

Don’t look now, ladies, but the Guys have you right where they want you

We are truly living in unprecedented times. These are the glory days of Guy Nation. In the words of one charming member, “Mmm, mmm, mmm. Mmm, mmm!”

What is Guy Nation? To be clear, Guy Nation does not necessarily subscribe to any political affiliation, nor is it contained within any particular socio-economic boundary. It includes guys of all ages, races, incomes, creeds, and pick-up lines.

Guy Nation rests on the firm foundation of three all-important precepts:

1) Guys should stay as immature as possible for as long as possible (also known as the Peter Pan Precept).

2) Guys must avoid responsibility wherever and whenever possible.

3) Pleasure is the greatest of all “goods”, being more important than security, emotional attachments, truth, love, and similar silly stuff.

All of these precepts have been in play ever since guys ventured out of their caves to kill animals with sticks and called it dinner. Yet widespread acceptance has been hard to come by. Until recently, that is. Finally, after centuries—even millennia—of dreams and struggles, Guy Nation began to become a reality in the 1950s. Guy Reality!

Through effective advertising, legal precedents, and the sheer, pajama-powered force of Hugh Hefner's aloof coolness, guys convinced women that becoming primarily sexual objects was a good and healthy thing. Mr. Hefner (“May his name be praised!” exclaims Guy Nation) had women lining up for the privilege of being viewed as bodies detached from personality, intellect, and soul—all for the pleasure of guys! (And for the aggrandizement of his personal fortune, but far be it for Guys to hold it against him.)

But all of this lusting after carefully produced and airbrushed images was just the first step toward Guy Nation. The girlie magazine dream needed to somehow become reality. Fortunately for the budding Guy Nation, there was a crack team of Guy Scientists working on the solution during the 1950s, including Drs. Gregory Pincus, Min Chueh Chang, John Rock, and Carl Djerassi (“May their collective names be praised!” shouts Guy Nation). Through their diligence and persistence—even in the face of strong evidence that the chemicals they used might be harmful to women—they gave the world The Pill, the first oral contraceptive. At last, at last, guys could have all the sexual carousing and pleasure they wanted without having to be bothered with stuff like marriage, commitment, relationships, pregnancies, and pesky little ones.

It was, however, going to be a tough sell in some quarters.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Atheist A.C. Grayling is a meretricious thinker, but a marvelous comedian

by Carl E. Olson | Catholic World Report blog

Here is the deep, philosophical question of the week: What is more annoying, insufferable, and unintentionally hilarious than the pontifications of atheist, "humanist", and "free thinker" A. C. Grayling?

Yes, I know, it's a tough one. I won't keep you in suspense.

Answer: The fawning, embarrassing adoration of an eighteen-year-old English student who interviews Grayling and acts as if the impressively maned Englishman's empty pontifications are rhetorical gold nuggets. That the interview is published in The Humanist is cause for the stones to cry out: "Oh, the inhumanity! Stop! Cease!"

But, to be honest, we can at least admit how fun it is to read this sort of nonsense and think, "And atheists think Christians are stupid? Goodness. I weep for them." No need to waste time with the entire train wreck of an interview, but a few pieces of broken thinking and confused stereotypes are worth kicking about for a moment. First, from the opening:

Philosophy is a rather strange business in the modern world of consumerism and commerce, I suppose. We’re so used to being force-fed ideas these days that we rarely, if ever, stop and think for ourselves.

Uh, speak for yourself, young man, speak for yourself.

And that’s where Grayling bucks the trend.

I think a gallon of coffee just shot out my nose. That is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Mind you, I've crossed cyber swords with Dr. Grayling in the past, over the matter of his ridiculous—nay, farcical—take on Christianity and the "Dark Ages". How shall I put this? Grayling isn't about bucking trends, but making bucks out of trends—in this case, the whole "new atheists" vehicle, to which he has hitched his modest bag of philosophical agitprop and public relations handles. A few years ago, an acquaintance who earned his doctorate in London and is now an atheist (we attended Bible college together 20 years ago as young Evangelicals), smirked at the mention of Grayling, saying, "He's all about fame and money." True enough.

But there is also the fact that Grayling acts as if his thinking is fresh and his perspective is daring, when both are actually decades out of dates. As I wrote six years ago: "He is an heir to the Enlightenment and thrives on the sort of anti-Christian polemics and dubious historical assertions that became the rage among many intellectuals during the Enlightenment era, so much so that he seems to be nearly entombed in a dusty (dare I say 'old-fashioned') form of simplistic skepticism that was in style many decades ago." Carry on.

Continue reading on the CWR blog.

In the Habit: A History of Catholicism and Tobacco

In the Habit: A History of Catholicism and Tobacco | John B. Buescher | Catholic World Report

Saints who smoked, popes who puffed, and others who snuffed.

Ad Maioram Dei Gloriam Sold to American

In 1873, impoverished Confederate veteran Chiswell Langhorne (left) moved his family from Lynchburg to Danville, Virginia and began looking for work. The owner of a Danville tobacco warehouse had recently developed a new system of selling tobacco by auction: Instead of having farmers’ tobacco hogsheads sampled for interested buyers, the warehouse owner had all the tobacco laid out in long rows for auction. Langhorne, a lively character with a taste for showing off, got the idea that he would make his mark somehow in the newly flourishing Danville tobacco trade.

He was an Episcopalian, but while visiting a Catholic friend in Richmond around this time, he attended Mass with him one Sunday morning and heard the priest’s Gregorian chant. Langhorne “reasoned that maybe he could supply the entertainment needs of warehousemen back home by emulating the priest’s stimulating chant, along with what he later coined, a ‘pitter-patter’ and ‘gobble gook’ that would stimulate the buyers and be pleasing to the gathering public.”

He added his own rhythmic body language and thereby created a fast-paced and entertaining auctioneering chant that allowed buyers moving along the rows of tobacco to track the rapid progress of the sales.

It served Langhorne well, as it has the generations of tobacco auctioneers that came after him, each one adding his own style. After his auctioneering success brought Langhorne some money, he began investing in the railroads that transported the tobacco from Danville, left the auctioneering business, and eventually made a fortune, allowing his family to move to an estate near Charlottesville and work itself back into the Virginia aristocracy. His daughter Irene married illustrator Charles Dana Gibson and became the model for his Gibson girl drawings, and his daughter Nancy married Waldorf Astor in England, was elected to Parliament, converted from the Episcopal Church to Christian Science, and became virulently anti-Catholic, despite the fact that, as we may say, her family’s success wound back, like a twist of tobacco, to her father’s having heard Gregorian chant one Sunday at high Mass. (Right: Danville auction warehouse postcard, 1946)

Ex Fumo Dare Lucem

At the time just after Spanish explorers were introduced to tobacco by way of Columbus’ voyages, smoking or snuffing it—as the New World natives did—carried with it something of an air of deviltry because natives saw in it a connection to invisible spirits. To some of the most earnest missionary clergy, the wreaths of its smoke and its action upon the spirits of those who imbibed it were a kind of sacramental parody of the Church’s sacraments, established in the New World beforehand by the Devil in order to hinder its evangelization. 

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Dozens injured, thousands confused by riots over "Gospel of Jesus' Wife"

By Nick Bottom of Audacious Scoffing Services:

DEVIL'S ELBOW, Missouri (ASS)— Theocratic, mean-spirited violence has erupted throughout the deep South, the "Bible Belt", the Midwest, and a smattering of towns in the Rocky Mountains as thousands of Christians have taken to the streets, wielding swords, Bibles, and plowshares, to protest the recent revelation that Jesus had at least one wife. Other protests, less violent but also widespread, took place over reports that some scholars and pulp novelists believe Jesus merely dated, but never married.

In Devil's Elbow, Missouri, a group of about two hundred men, women, and children, all blood relatives of one sort or another, dressed in their Sunday best and carrying large Bibles, stormed through the downtown, chanting, "Those who mock the Lord, will surely taste the sword; Liars say he had a wife, liars deserve to taste the knife." At least eighteen were injured from blows and bursts of righteous indignation, and two men were slain in the Spirit, although they were apparently not harmed physically.

Eyewitnesses report that the riotous Christians were singing a popular, militantly theistic song with the lyrics, "It only takes a spark, to get a fire going/and soon all those around, are warmed up by its glowing..." One bystander, Joe "Buck" Bob, said the singing was "unusually good; they have really purty voices."

Similar riots have broken out in numerous small towns. But they are also taking place in cities and other important places. Demonstrations near Harvard University, where professor Karen L. King teaches, were especially intense, in part because Christians had not been on the Harvard campus for nearly five decades, and faculty and staff were deeply confused by their clean-cut appearance and efficient methods of quoting Scripture while seeking to force victims to "do some serious soul searching". Numerous faculty members and students were shocked and traumatized by what one history professor called "the sort of theocratic-inspired violence that hasn't been witnessed since Galileo was torn to shreds by Roman Catholic popes and their mistresses in the Vatican gardens in the thirteenth century."

King, the Harvard Divinity School professor who had brought the stunning text, "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife" to public attention last week, denounced the actions as those of "crazy, right-wing, woman-hating, religious zealots who want to impose their fundamentalist, sharia law upon people of good will and Ivy League professors." Speaking from a tightly guarded ivory tower, she told some six dozen reporters that the potentially bloody demonstrations were not surprising considering the violence that had followed the publication of The Da Vinci Code, which had first brought the issue of Jesus' marital status to the attention of people who were not aware of who Jesus was or why an ordinary Jewish lad would eschew marriage in the first place.

Continue reading on the CWR blog.