Real Catholic Blog

An Episcopal priest and 10 nuns from the Episcopal order Society of All Saints’ Sisters of the Poor, all who reside in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will be confirmed into the Church at September 3 Mass celebrated by Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien, according to the archdiocesan paper, The Catholic Review. The nuns will continue their ministry. The priest, Warren Tanghe, is discerning the priesthood. 

According to the article, found via Catholic Online:

Orthodoxy and unity were key reasons the sisters were attracted to the Catholic faith. Many of them were troubled by the Episcopal Church’s approval of women’s ordination, the ordination of a gay bishop and what they regarded as lax stances on moral issues.

The nuns strove to be a “witness for orthodoxy” within the Episcopal Church, but Mother Christina Christie, the community’s superior, said that by not doing anything more than that they sent the wrong message. They resisted pleas to stay as well as their own thoughts of joining the more orthodox Anglican American church, newly formed in a much publicized schism with the Episcopal Church over issues of orthodoxy, such as the consecration, in New Hampshire, of the openly homosexual bishop, Gene Robinson.

In the end, however, the Holy Spirit directed them to the Church — for some time, the sisters individually were secretly contemplating Catholicism. When they realized this, the decision was easier to make. Said Mother Christina:

This is very much the work of the Holy Spirit.

There was some earthly help, too, although, of course, the Holy Spirit was working there as well: As it turns out, the nuns greatly admire Pope Benedict XVI.

As I’ve written about previously — and if you’ve even lightly perused this blog, you would know — we’re big fans of Catholics Come Home, an organization dedicated to reinvigorating the spirit of those Catholics who have fallen away from the Faith. I’ve also posted its second video (”Movie”)here and its third (”Testimonials”) here. They are only a minute or two long, and worth viewing — even the most devout will be touched — then passing on, especially to those who need the spiritual help.

Last year, CCH had a big success. Buying commercial time on local television stations in the Diocese of Phoenix, it was responsible for bringing back to the Church 90,000 people. It has done this in other areas as well, and its goal is to undertake a media campaign in every American diocese. Earlier this week, it announced it will buy media time in the Diocese of Sacramento.

Reports the Catholic News Agency:

Hoping to encourage at least 100,000 non-practicing Catholics to return to church, the Diocese of Sacramento is preparing a “come home” advertising campaign for this December and January.

At Mass over the next several weeks, church leaders will outline the program and ask parishioners to help pay for the ads. The ads are produced by the Catholics Come Home project.

“There’s a large number of people who have left the church and are waiting for an invitation to come back,” Msgr. James Murphy, vicar general of the diocese, told the Sacramento Bee. “This is their invitation.”

Currently, eight other dioceses are running the CCH ads. We pray for a remarkable success in those dioceses as well as in Sacramento, and look forward to more great work — and the resulting Church homecomings — in the future from Catholics Come Home.

Last week, upon his death, I posted the story of Robert Novak’s conversion to the Church as well as an account of a personal encounter I had with him. Reflecting on Mr. Novak, I realized there are numerous stories of people famous and not who have inspiring stories of conversion to the Faith. We’ll try to highlight some of them along the way.

But it also occured to me that there was another famous Washington power broker type who’s also converted to the Faith with whom I also have had a couple of personal moments. That would be former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.

I met him a couple of years ago at a fundraiser for a group for which I did some volunteer work. A woman I know popped up with a camera out of nowhere while I, by chance was standing next to him, having finished a brief conversation with him and getting his autograph. She asked if I would like my picture with him. I said, “I think that’s the Speaker’s decision. Does he want one with me?” He gladly stopped and posed. My mom, who loves him, was very impressed.

This past spring, I was at a dinner where he was the special guest speaker. I had no hope of getting close to him, but as I walked through the hotel lobby, there he was — having just emerged from a makeshift studio where he participated in a live cable news interview. I looked up, saw him, and couldn’t hold back. I reminded him of the picture story, but quickly got right to the point:

“Mr. Speaker, I’m a big fan, but my mom is absolutely crazy about you. But as a devout Catholic, when she read about your recent conversion, she cried she was so happy!”

He smiled as broad as Saint Peter’s Square and a genuine twinkle of appreciation flashed in his eyes. He gushed his thanks and told me to be sure to thank her. I had the impression he wouldn’t have minded hanging around and talking about it — in his speech earlier, he quoted John Paul II extensively. But I decided not to press my luck. Instead, I moved along, counting my blessings . . . and his.

Here’s one of the few public comments Mr. Gingrich has made about his conversion:

Brother Newt? The former Speaker of the House is passionate about the admiration he had for John Paul II well before his conversion to the Faith.

Just to show we have a sense of humor . . . get a load of this: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen on What’s My Line? I love classic TV anyway, and this defines it. However, there is something to take away from this: Check out the deportment of the celebrities. Do you think there could a “celebrity panel” today without suggestive language, outlandish attire and an inattention to manners? 

Please enjoy and share, and you can find an entire catalogue of Bishop Sheen videos on YouTube (click here).

Must See TV: Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in a light moment. 

President Barack Obama must be on the defensive. In fact, he’s publicly quoting Bible verses now, saying some are “bearing false witness” against his health care “reform” legislation. He’s even found time to preach, calling his health care plan a “moral obligation” (see CNSNews.com). However, he particularly detests people who are bringing to light the truth about how this bill will fund abortion on demand.

One of those people is Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia and chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities. The president said in a radio interview today that anyone who says the bill will cover abortion services is committing a “fabrication.”  (If so, then why is Planned Parenthood in on the crafting of this bill?)

This is what Cardinal Rigali wrote in his pastoral letter (see entire letter here):

Because some federal funds are authorized and appropriated by this legislation without passing through the Labor/HHS appropriations bill, they are not covered by the Hyde amendment and other federal provisions that have long prevented federal funding of abortion and of health benefits packages that include abortion. The committee rejected an amendment to extend this longstanding policy to the use of federal subsidies for health care premiums under this Act. Instead the committee created a legal fiction, a paper separation between federal funding and abortion: Federal funds will subsidize the public plan, as well as private health plans that include abortion on demand; but anyone who purchases these plans is required to pay a premium out of his or her own pocket (specified in the Act to be at least $1.00 a month) to cover all abortions beyond those eligible for federal funds under the current Hyde amendment. Thus some will claim that federal taxpayer funds do not support abortion under the Act.

But this is an illusion. Funds paid into these plans are fungible, and federal taxpayer funds will subsidize the operating budget and provider networks that expand access to abortions.

When the president spoke at Notre Dame this past spring, he waxed on about coming together with Catholics, finding areas of agreement and respectfully disagreeing when necessary after honest dialogue. It looks here as if Cardinal Rigali knows more about the president’s own bill than the president does. But it doesn’t sound like the president truly is interested in honest dialogue.

So, for his respectful disagreement and research on the issue, this is how the leader of the free world reaches out to one of the American Church’s leaders. Just who is fabricating here, Mr. President?

I had the pleasure of meeting Robert Novak at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas as a just graduated college student. It was a memorable moment: a young man who loved writing and politics, meeting, out of nowhere, in a hotel parking lot, a famous man, and engaging in a casual conversation. Perhaps casual for him. Ever the journalist, he was curious, not unlike the time, I’m sure, when he asked a college girl a question that ultimately changed his life.

He wanted to know the who, why and where of “all these young people,” with a bit of bewilderment in his voice. I answered excitedly, and couldn’t wait to move past that and tell him how much I loved reading his syndicated column in my local paper.

That alone was something, but the next night, when I and some newfound friends got to, by another total happenstance, talk with him and Pat Buchanan, it was as close to Heaven as we could be, completely mesmerized as the two held court, trying to act cool talking to our new celebrity buddies, the total envy of every experienced delegate on the convention floor. Perhaps a slice of Heaven then, for us, a crew of wide-eyed college-age boys. Robert Novak, today, has the full Heavenly experience.

With those words, a college student taught something to a worldly, famous, immensely successful Washington journalist. It was the late 1990s when Robert Novak — a political conservative, born a Jew, but who lived as an agnostic for for 50 years — came to God and accepted the Catholic faith. Yesterday, he died of the brain cancer diagnosed about a year ago.

His journey to faith is an interesting story (see CNA via Catholic Online), more compelling than the political news about which he wrote for decades. After nearly dying in the early 1980s, a friend gave him some Catholic literature. But it wasn’t until several years later when his non-Catholic wife prevailed upon him to attend Mass with her at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. The celebrant of that Mass was a former lawyer, advisor to a high-ranking senator — and source for his widely read column. Mr. Novak continued attending Mass for next few years, but his self-confessed turning point occured at a dinner at Syracuse University where he met a student wearing a cross on her necklace. He asked if she was Catholic. She replied, yes, then asked if he was.

When he said he wasn’t, but that he attended Mass regularly, she said, “Mr. Novak, life is short, but eternity is forever.”

He then entered the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and he was baptized Catholic at Saint Peter’s in 1998. His wife, Geraldine, also became Catholic. Mr. Novak maintained that his conversion to Catholicism was the most profound aspect of his life; he recognized the legitimacy of the True Faith and believed the power of the Holy Spirit was revealed to him through the coincidences that led him to his conversion

* * * * *

That college student did something wonderful that day in Syracuse. She spoke her faith and challenged a famous man without hesitation in order to save his soul. I was at a political breakfast recently where the speaker, a non-Catholic Christian and radio talk show host, began his talk with a question:

How many of you are not afraid to approach a stranger and begin talking religion and politics?

Perhaps three or four hands went up. He asked what was wrong with the rest of us. The two most important things in life, he said, are our relationship with God and how His will is carried out on Earth. We easily slide into conversations about sports, entertainment, the weather, work, whatever. But how many people have the courage to speak their convictions in order to save a soul.

Would you save a life if you could by convincing someone to stop smoking or abusing alcohol or eating food detrimental to a particular physical condition? Yes, I’m sure. But saving a soul?

Yet, that  is what Jesus has charged us to do. We hear His ageless commandment echoed every week (or day) at the end of Mass: “Let us go forth to love and serve the Lord.”

It’s hard to keep a secret today, with all the new media, small electronic devices that can record video and the like. It’s truly a never ending news cycle and public figures need to be alert to the fact that anything they say or write can be circulated world wide in seconds.

Of course, if you blab and blow your cover intentionally, there’s no accident involved. Actually, it’s pretty arrogant, in your face stuff.

So, for those proponents of the proposed “health care reform” legislation pending in Congress who say it’s a scare tactic to claim abortion on demand is covered in the bill, why is Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards twittering and posting on Facebook like a little girl with her first crush about her meetings with President Barack Obama? 

From her Twitter and Facebook pages last week:

Just left the White House meeting on women’s health care — they appreciate all the mighty PP supporters speaking up for reform in the states!

See the report by Kathleen Gilbert of LifeSiteNews.com via CatholicOnline, here, complete with the gushing Richards getting hugged by President Barack Obama himself.

Planned Parenthood’s stated goal, according to one of its news releases quoted in the article, is to ensure the legislation includes “access to comprehensive reproductive health care and access to essential community providers within the network.”

Richards, herself, said, “Health care reform is moving full steam ahead, and policymakers in Washington need to know the importance of including women’s health care (i.e. abortion!) as part of a reform package.” 

But there’s more. Always, there’s more, and if it involves Washington, D.C., you can guess what that more is . . . it’s more money. Planned Parenthood has a very real conflict of interest here. Or, as the president likes to say, “skin in the game.” That’s because, even if it genuinely believes abortion is not wrong and the policy is just (and it probably does), Planned Parenthood, a “non-profit” that profits by millions each year and still receives taxpayer dollars, stands to make still more money if this bill passes since it is the nation’s largest abortion provider. More abortions, more business. More the better when it’s guaranteed with our tax money.

Smiles and hugs at the White House, school girl delight on Facebook and Twitter. Skin in the game, indeed. But it’s the skin and bones and tissue of innocent babies.

I find one aspect that gets neglected in most people’s prayer life is their diocese. Sure, at Mass, we pray for the Holy Father, our diocese’s bishop and all Church leaders. But how often do we include our respective dioceses in our personal intentions? For its growth through more people returning to the Church as well as new converts to the faith? For its staff, that it will be administered well and proper? For the culture around the diocese, such as the closing of abortion centers? 

There are many needs, not to mention an increase in religious and priestly vocations in every diocese. One nice thing to do is to learn your diocese’s patron saint and attend Mass on his or her feast day, and constantly seek the patron’s intercession for your diocese’s needs. Ask your Bishop to say a special Mass that day at your diocese’s cathedral, perhaps in the evening so many can attend, instead of a normal morning daily Mass, and ask him to request all parishes schedule a special Mass of their own. Ask your pastor to do a special Mass on this feast day, as well as on the feast day of your parish’s patron saint.

So, please keep you diocese in your prayers. Here is a prayer I came across a couple of years ago. Pray it yourself and with prayer groups. If there is a Rosary after daily Mass at your parish, perhaps you can have the group say it before or after, or maybe ask your pastor to lead the congregation in it one Sunday. As I am “bi-ritual,” so to speak, I pray for my local Roman Rite diocese and my Maronite Rite eparchy in this prayer, and pray it at least once a week:

Heavenly Father, author and inspirer of all things holy, hear (my/our) prayers for the Diocese of (  ).

Send forth Your Spirit that we may humbly be guided by your Divine Will.

Touch our hearts with true generosity to raise up a house of God for the inspiration and renewal of all your faithful.

We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Women for Faith & Family has a great page on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, complete with Church teaching and theology, history, art, devotions, song lyrics, Scripture Readings, meditations, prayers and more. The art on this post comes from that page. 

Two of the Scripture Readings for the Holy Day:

SECOND READING: I Corinthians 15:20-27

Brothers and sisters: Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order:

Christ the firstfruits; then, at His coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to His God and Father, when He has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power.

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for “He subjected everything under His feet.”

Assumption of Mary

Mateo Cerezo,  oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

GOSPEL READING: Luke 1:39-56

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm, He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent empty away. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity for ever.” And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her home.

The Assumption 

Lorenzo Lotto (ca. 1512), Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera