Real Catholic Blog

We hope as many people as possible attend the March For Life, January 20-23, in Washington, D.C. Our very own Brother John (the hard working, behind the scenes, driving force of this blog) will be there and will offer will provide coverage for us. Parishes and dioceses all over the country, as well as Catholic and pro-life organizations, are sponsoring transportation. It will be worth the effort — a pilgrimage of activism in the defense of the unborn.

Many events are planned for the week, culminating in the great march on Friday, January 23. Many of the events are Catholic oriented, including Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life and Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. For more information on these and the many other events and activities, from lectures to a flashlight rally across from the White House, to a bloggers conference, LifeSiteNews.com has an entire schedule and details on each event, here. 

Meanwhile, we’ll provide updates along the way. We hope you check back often and, most importantly, continue to pray for the end of abortion in America.

From EWTN.com:

St. Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle.

Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou,

O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God,

thrust into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who prowl about the world

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

O glorious prince St. Michael,

chief and commander of the heavenly hosts,

guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits,

servant in the house of the Divine King

and our admirable conductor,

you who shine with excellence

and superhuman virtue deliver us from all evil,

who turn to you with confidence

and enable us by your gracious protection

to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Amen.

I’m sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I was knocked off my feet last week with something . . . still not sure what. Either food poisoning or some hit and run flu strain. However, I appear fully (or mostly) recovered and bare exciting news:

Real Catholic Blog will have a presence at this year’s March For Life, Friday, January 22, in Washington, D.C. Not an official presence, but Brother John will be in attendance and we are excited that he will relay his impressions of his experiences of this massive outpouring of pro-life sentiment. We hope to have pictures to post as well. Brother John will be on a bus chartered by Saint Anthony Maronite parish in Richmond, Va. If you see him, tell him hello. He’ll have a prayer card to give you.

For more information about this event, the largest and most significant event promoting the cause of the unborn in American each year (and maybe the world) visit MarchforLife.org. It is a three-day event, including the Rose Dinner, whose featured speaker this year is Robert George (see LifeSiteNews), author of the Manhattan Declaration, the groundbreaking document signed by thousands of religious and pro-life leaders, and hundreds of thousands of grassroots pro-life activists, committing themselves to the end of abortion in America. The March For Life site has information on chartering buses, how to participate and all the related events. We hope that all of our readers, if not their parishes and/or dioceses are not already making plans for March For Life, will take a leadership role in getting them involved. We will provide updates about March For Life until then and, as always, keep you up to date on all pro-life news.

We rarely get commercial here, but, after all, we are part of a retail operation. So, as a reminder, if you like the devotional, spiritual and moral  elucidations of this blog, and would like to give someone or some people a gift that truly reflects the season, please visit RealCatholic.com, our Ave Maria online store, where we can fulfill all of your Catholic and Christian religious goods needs: Bibles, Christian art, books from numerous authors on almost any subject, including those authored by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II (or books about them); or books about Church history and saints; or sacred or contemporary music, devotionals, Rosaries, prayer cards, you name it. We offer quality merchandise and competitive prices and ship anywhere in the world.

So, we thank you for letting us take this commercial time out, and hope you have the opportunity to visit us at RealCatholic.com. We hope you have a very Merry and Spirit-filled Christmas.

On behalf of Brother John and myself, please accept our warmest wishes and prayers for a bountiful and blessed Thanksgiving, full of family and fun.

Although an American holiday and not overtly religious, it is, nevertheless, a reverent time to give thanks to the Lord our God for all the blessings he has bestowed on us — individually, our families and our country. After all, prayer was a the foundation of the very First Thanksgiving (in Virginia!) (See video). Each proclamation since, whether by the Continental Congress or the President of the United States, has called for prayer to our Creator and God for the special blessings He has granted this country.

Here, then, is a Catholic prayer of Thanksgiving for this special American holiday:

Father in Heaven, Creator of all and source of all goodness and love, please look kindly upon us and receive our heartfelt gratitude in this time of giving thanks.

Thank you for all the graces and blessings. You have betowed upon us, spiritual and temporal: our faith and religious heritage. Our food and shelter, our health, the loves we have for one another, our family and friends.

Dear Father, in Your infinite generosity, please grant us continued graces and blessing throughout the coming year.

This we ask in the Name of Jesus, Your Son and our Brother. Amen.

Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence, R.I., will give an exclusive interview to Bill O’Reilly on The O’Reilly Factor tonight on the Fox News Channel (8:00 Eastern, repeated at 11:00 and throughout the night). Bishop Tobin has been in the news of late because U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, and an adamant pro-abortion proponent, has made public Bishop Tobin’s correspondence to him.

Yesterday, the congressman released a 2007 letter in which Bishop Tobin requested that Rep. Kennedy refrain from receiving Holy Communion because of his abortion on demand positions and misrepresenting the Faith. Currently, the two have disagreed publicly on the congressman’s support of the abortion provisions in the health care bill.

Each time Bishop Tobin as counseled him on the teachings of the Church, all in private, Rep. Kennedy has gone public with the release of the personal, pastoral letters. But Bishop Tobin has responded with clarity and grace, despite the breach of confidentiality. While a Bishop/member-of-the-flock feud rarely becomes public, there are great lessons to be learned about this — namely, that public figures cannot bring scandal upon the Church by misrepresting Church teaching and expect those pledged to uphold The Truth let them continue misleading the faithful.

The interview should be of utmost interest. I hope all Real Catholic Blog readers will get a chance to view it. Then, please leave your comments and impressions of the interview and the controversy in general. Also, here is a link to an online poll from NBC10 in Providence. Please take the time to vote in it.

The following was issued by Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests For Life, earlier tonight. He urges prayer to end abortion and asks people to relate their experiences of prayer in saving lives from abortion on his Facebook page.

Brothers and Sisters,

Prayer is the cornerstone of the pro-life movement and the best weapon we have to save lives, always in God’s name. We have no doubt that prayer saves lives, but let us share now with each other and the world how prayer has specifically saved lives within the pro-life movement.

We invite each of you to share your story of how prayer has saved a life. We will share these stories with our members and with the world. Let us show the world how the Lord has heard our prayers and the lives that have been saved as a result.

God bless you. Can’t wait to read your stories!

- Fr. Frank Pavone

For those who live in the Richmond, Va., area, or anyone who may visit here this weekend, I couldn’t resist a plug for the Saint Benedict Church Oktoberfest, which runs September 18-19. (In other words, a real Oktoberfest, held around the days of the actual Bavarian festival.) The hours on Friday are from 5-10 p.m. and from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. on Saturday. It offers authentic German food, music, dancing and more. If you go, you will want to tour the historic church and see, among other things, its well known sanctuary mural, which the parish restored within the last two years.

The historic sanctuary mural at St. Benedict Church in Richmond, Va. The church is a thriving, growing urban parish that celebrates traditional Catholicism.

Only in its 5th year, this festival is a knock-your-socks off event from an urban parish that is growing because of its unapologetic upholding of traditional Catholicism. The coincidence of a German Pope also named Benedict probably has been a bit of a boon to the parish, but it’s no coincidence the Holy Father is popular there, for they truly practice what he — and the Church — teach, complete with outreach and introduction to the Faith by parishioners who canvass the neighborhood. So, while the festival is great fellowship among parishioners, it’s a reflection of Christ to non-Catholics as well. The festival also kicks off its 40 Days For Life campaign. 

Founded by the Benedictines from Belmont Abbey in North Carolina in the early part of the last century, the church shares a square block area with an all-male military high school the monks still run. However, some years ago, the monks started their own (Mary, Mother of the Church) Abbey in the Virginia countryside and turned over the parish to the Diocese of Richmond. The parish runs a K-8 co-ed school two blocks away.

We’re expecting a lot of new visitors today and over the next week as we are finished with our “soft launch” phase and fully into formal, grand opening launch! We’ve contacted thousands by e-mail and social networking sites since yesterday since Saturday. So, if this is your first visit to RealCatholicBlog, or if you haven’t been back in a few weeks since our soft opening, and want to get to know us better, feel free to visit our very first post, a welcome statement, from our first day, July 31. Additionally, be sure to check out the entire blog, including our About page, Blog Contributors page, and About RealCatholic/Ave Maria at the top of the home page to get a further sense of our mission, history and background. 

We think you’ve landed in the right place and look forward to you joining with us to create a vibrant, growing online community of fellowship and faith in which to further understand the Catholic Church and spread the Gospel.

May the Lord’s Peace and Blessings be upon you always!

What in the world? Another Catholic blog? Yes, in fact, and unapologetically so. We don’t think there can be too many of them, especially in a world that always has needed spiritual direction.

Think about it: Jesus sent his Apostles out in pairs to preach the Gospel to the communities of which they were aware. Sounds like a lot of people, right? After all, before mass communication, the only people who knew of Jesus were those who saw him preach or heard of Him word of mouth. So they had to spread the Word themselves. So on the surface of it, the hundreds of millions of Catholics and millions more who practice their faith in Christian denominations — an incomprehensible number to those original 12 fishermen — would seem like an accomplishment.

But the world has grown and there are billions of people today who do not know the Gospel. There are untold others who have left the Church for one reason of another. Who will go two by two to reach them?

So, yes, another Catholic blog, another presence on the Internet, another vehicle to — in any way — embolden and strengthen the faith, to support the teachings of the Church, to aid its ancillary groups, to defend its Biblical Truth as revealed through the Holy Spirit, to win new souls to the Church, to assist those who want to learn about the Church, to help those in doubt and those looking for direction, to be inspirational, to bring clarity to a world increasingly enticed by a culture ruled by the “dictatorship of relativism,” to create a vigorous online community and a complete resource of all things Catholic, and to share the rich tradition of Catholicism through which we hope to bring God’s love and mercy to all, and a reciprocal and uncompromising worship to Him.

Let us now go forth to love and serve the Lord.