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Showing posts from April, 2013

Five takeaways from Pew’s comprehensive study on Islam – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Five takeaways from Pew’s comprehensive study on Islam – CNN Belief Blog - CNN.com Blogs

Canada’s team? Oh, really? Typical bias from a Toronto based mainstream media outlet

Toronto Maple Leafs as Canada's hockey team? When pigs can fly!! It's arrogance like that expressed in the this column (link at bottom of page if you want to read it) that alienates Canadians in Ottawa, Montreal, and Vancouver - not to mention fans of the Canadian 'also rans' for this years playoffs: the Oilers, Flames, and Jets. All I've got to say is.... ...Go Sens Go! Canada’s team? Oh, really?

Quote for the New Evangelization: Loyalty & Family

"The strength of a family is measured in the loyalty of its members." As baptized Catholics, we are all members of a number of families to which we owe and are owed loyalty. First and foremost is our membership in God's family, made so through His adoption of humanity in the life and passion of Jesus. We can always count on the loyalty of God, both to walk with us through the joys and trials of life and to bring us to the life to come. We are also members of the Catholic family. Given its human membership it's a family that comes with all the good and bad we can see in any extended family: mostly good and loving folks with a few bad apples mixed in that others try to ignore and never want to acknowledge as being related to them. Thankfully the majority of those who carry the appelation 'Catholic' recognize the obligation to preserve and pass on the good reputation that family name which our ancestors passed on to us. Finally, there's our own biologic

Tea, cake and mortality? 'Death cafes' popping up in Canadian cities | CTV News

I know that a double espresso might be bad for my heart, but this may be going just a step to far! (grin) Tea, cake and mortality? 'Death cafes' popping up in Canadian cities | CTV News

This week in religion history: The fight for the right to wear a Jesus shirt | Holy Post | National Post

This week in religion history: The fight for the right to wear a Jesus shirt | Holy Post | National Post

How to See the New Pope in Rome - NYTimes.com

How to See the New Pope in Rome - NYTimes.com

A beautiful video of three years of the Sun!

Pope John Paul II and murdered El Salvador archbishop move closer to sainthood: WONDERFUL NEWS on both fronts!

Pope John Paul II                                                                 Archbishop Oscar Romero Pope John Paul II and murdered El Salvador archbishop move closer to sainthood | Holy Post | National Post

Today's quote for the New Evangization

As we daily search for ways to impliment the New Evangelization, we should keep in mind that most of those who've been lost to the faith once were warmed by the fires of faith in their lives. For many, be it by neglect or tragic event, that fire has been extinguished in their lives. Today's quote from Albert Schweitzer offers a way to perhaps rekindle the spark of faith for others: by loving them as authentically and completely as we can so as to help them find again the consoling warmth of faith in God who is love itself. In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

Catholic-Hierarchy News: Cardinal Group to study government of the universal Church

Here are the names of the Cardinals that Pope Francis has chosen as advisers in governing the universal Church, with particular emphasis on developing a plan for reforming the Curia. It`s an interesting group of names who should produce an interesting plan. It`s pretty inclusive of the panoply of popular Catholic theologies without sacrificing the outside objective view point needed to some needed reforms. It`s also indicative of Pope Francis implementing structures that reflect those within each of the dioceses around the world where Canon Law mandates similar such bodies to advise the local Ordinary. Put another way, this seems to reflect Francis` decision to see his pontifical mission as truly being a `first among equals`among his brother bishops. More `Bishop of Rome`rather than Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church.  If nothing else, it demonstrates a commitment to substantive consultation from other bishops (a Vatican II directive) and an acknowledgement that something has g

Catholic versus the secular | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com

In Margaret Nutting Ralph's first book, "And God Said What?: An Introduction to Biblical Literary Forms" (Paulist Press, $18.95), published in 1986, Ralph wrote from the standpoint of a Bible-studying "contextualist" within the Roman Catholic Church. She put Scripture into its historical and moral context, considering overall directives of the Scripture in addition to specific historical mandates. Her new book, "Why the Catholic Church Must Change: A Necessary Conversation" (Rowan & Littlefield, $34), examines various topics not just of the secular culture — abortion, marriage annulment and social justice — but of the Catholic culture and focuses on how the church can change. In addition to her writing, Ralph, a Catholic, is director of the pastoral studies master's program at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky and teaches in the permanent deacon program at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in St. Meinrad, Ind. She discussed h

I can feel you pain Puss, I can feel you pain. 20cm of snow and ice pellets here today. Where the hell is the Spring those famous rodents promised in February???

Cardinal Kasper: Pope Francis has launched 'new phase' on Vatican II

Cardinal Walter Kasper has an important piece in today’s  Osservatore Romano , saying that Pope Francis, with his focus on poverty and social justice issues, has launched a new phase of implementation of the Second Vatican Council. Cardinal Kasper makes a strong argument that the council’s journey of renewal is not over and that the decades of discussion over its teachings should lead to new “practical consequences.” Pope Francis, he said, has pointed the way with his emphasis on a church that becomes poor and serves the poor. “In this sense, Pope Francis from the first day of his pontificate has given what I would call his prophetic interpretation of the council, and has inaugurated a new phase of its reception. He has changed the agenda: at the top are the problems of the Southern hemisphere,” Cardinal Kasper wrote. Click on link to read entire article:   Source article

Third Argument Against Existence of God Discovered

St. Thomas, who always tried to be thorough and fair, surveyed the whole history of human thought and could only come up with two really decent arguments against the existence of God. For all of history up to the present, all really good atheist arguments boil down to one or both of these, repeated and elaborated up with varying emotional appeals, illustrations, and putdowns.  All the *other* atheist “arguments” boil down to fallacious crap, emoting, grandstanding, posturing, non sequiturs, blather, and sneering.  That atheism so often moves past the two good arguments and lards on fallacious crap is one of the telling tics that gives away the fact that atheists aren’t as confident of their case as they often insist they are. However, thanks to modern biological research, we may have a third argument that can help the atheist case:  really big scary spiders . Some of my readers will argue that this spider is a restatement of the Problem of Evil. Let me explain it in the manner of redd

Cardinal Tom Collins (Toronto) bars priest promoting radical agenda from talking in Catholic facilities.

TORONTO, April 10, 2013 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - The Archdiocese of Toronto is taking flak this week after barring a priest known for opposing Church teaching from speaking in the diocese. Franciscan Fr. Michael Crosby, a self-styled reformer who calls for women’s ordination and acceptance of homosexuality, among other things, as part of a top-down overhaul of the Church, will be the speaker at the Canadian Forum on Theology and Education from April 22-23. He will offer seven talks over the two days. Franciscan Fr. Michael Crosby The event was originally scheduled to take place at the office of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, but has been moved to a non-Catholic venue in the Diocese of Hamilton after the Toronto Archdiocese said the event did not meet its  protocol for talks by visiting clergy and laity , which requires that they be “theologically sound” and “support Catholic teaching on faith and morals.” Click on link below to read entire article: LifeSiteNew

Reasonable & Responsible: Reflections from a great new book by Fr. Robert Spitzer on new proofs of God's existence

  Continuing some reflections from the book “New Proofs for the Existence of God” by Fr. Robert Spitzer, let’s consider the significance of infinite vs. finite past time and why the discussion might matter. Most scientists accept and that our universe is 13.7 billion years old and that the big bang actually happened as the beginning point. When Fr. Spitzer refers to “the universe”, he does not mean only our universe as in one of many, he means ALL physical reality (time, space, matter, energy, etc.); anything that is not nothing. There are several speculative scenarios about the universe where “something” was supposed to have happened or physically existed before the big bang, so the big bang is not really the beginning of the universe or the beginning of time. These scenarios are called Past-Extended Big Bang models or PBBM’s. In the book, Fr. Spitzer runs through many arguments for the Standard Big Bang model as the most reasonable & responsible model ; where the big bang IS

On the Problem of False Dichotomies Advanced by those who oppose the Faith. « Archdiocese of Washington

If we are to be successful in this age of the New Evangelization, we need to understand how our opponents work. 'Know thy enemy' is always the first task before engaging in debate just at it is in the art of war. To that end, here's something from Msgr. Charles Pope with something to consider as part of our preparations for our part in the task of re-evangelization. On the Problem of False Dichotomies Advanced by those who oppose the Faith. « Archdiocese of Washington

Impoverished Spirits | Thoughts by George Weigel on Pope Francis

"Certain ritual encounters have now become standard operating procedure for a new pope. In each of these meetings, Pope Francis has done something surprising, in his low-key, gentle way. In a Mass celebrated in the Sistine Chapel with the College of Cardinals on the day after his election, the Holy Father raised cautions about clerical ambition—a yellow warning flag that reflected the concerns he had expressed during the papal interregnum about “spiritual worldliness” corrupting the Church, and an unmistakable call to a more energetically evangelical exercise of the priesthood and the episcopate." Click link below to read entire article: Impoverished Spirits | First Things

Something new: A quote of the day for the New Evangelization

It doesn't matter how we define a 'family', this quote is always true.   So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty. All other pacts of love or fear derive from it and are modeled upon it.    

A local groups heads to March for Life 2013 in Ottawa - I'll be there. Will you?

March for Life  Thursday May 9, 2013  North Bay Right to Life is organizing our annual bus trip to the March for Life in Ottawa. There will be MORE than 20,000 people at the March this year!  If you can't walk the route, bring a lawn chair and spend the time on Parliament Hill with others.  Help us show the country that respect for all life is essential. For more information, call the Right to Life office at  474-3666 . Tickets are $20. and available in advance only.

Cleaning Up the Engine Room | First Things

If the conclave of 2005 was about continuity—extending the legacy of John Paul II by electing his closest theological advisor as his successor—the conclave of 2013 was about governance. The College of Cardinals came to Rome convinced that the incapacities of the Roman Curia over the previous eight years had become a serious obstacle to the Church’s evangelical mission; their experience in the General Congregations prior to the conclave hardened that view. So the cardinals elected a proven reformer whose age on assuming the papacy meant that he wouldn’t have to play a long game, but could move swiftly to repair what needs repairing in what Blessed John Henry Newman allegedly referred to as the “engine room” of the Barque of Peter. What needs repairing, down there below decks? Click on link to read rest of article: Cleaning Up the Engine Room | First Things

Where the hell am I?? Problems with the 'on-ramp' to where the rubber hits the road

Regulars readers may have had an unexpected shock when they visited this site these past few days. Evidently, someone hacked in and infected the blog with malware that directed visitors to WTRHTR someplace they didn't expect or want to be. Blogger has removed the offending code so there should not be any more problems... but please contact me if you encounter any difficulties. I almost feel honored... someone thought the blog worthy of hacking! If I wasn't making progress for the cause no one would bother it. Still, hopefully the repairs by 'road crew' at Blogger will make for a smooth road for all. Thank you for your patience.