Real Catholic Blog

I have a confession to make. Last week, when I wrote about iPadre Father Jay Finelli, something didn’t feel right. Not about him. He seems an outstanding priest.

I got the idea about the “iPadre” from I saw something on television a few days before. I caught it in the middle, and didn’t get the whole story, but I did see where this priest was a Apple aficionado and had developed an iPad app for the Roman Missal and used it rather than the actual Missal at Mass.

I heard the reporter use the moniker “iPadre” for him. So, I Googled “iPadre” and only one news article registered, much less any television reports (the one I found was from a local station and buried on his Web site), and that article was from the The Georgia Bulletin (Archdiocese of Atlanta) — strange, since I also thought the iPadre was in Italy. Stranger still since the article was about a priest in Diocese of Providence.

Oh, well, what do I know. The “Heat Index” has hovered around 110 degrees for about two months. Maybe I was suffering from heat fatigue and thought “Italy” because I heard an Italian name, which Father Finelli has. I further researched Father Finelli, found more information, was quite impressed and wrote a blog about him. I’ve heard from some people and have had interesting discussions about the use of technology in bringing the Word to more people.

But something still stuck in me. I’m the type that simply cannot go unfulfilled in the pursuit of a story and my instincts are pretty good. I’m the type that just has to know. I’m not satisfied until I’m satisfied all avenues are exhausted to confirm or deny any hunch I have. Yesterday, I was still thinking about it. Then, it hit me: Although one might think it specific enough, instead of “iPadre,” Google instead, “priest uses iPad at Mass.”

Thank you Saint Anthony! (Don’t laugh, he helped me find deleted blog posts on another blog, once — Google and Yahoo! cache them.) So, today, here’s a post about the real iPadre!

He happens to be Father Paolo Padrini, 36, an Italian priest who consults with the Vatican, (indeed, from Italy) and another Mac head (see boing boing). Now that I know his name, there’s miles of info on him. He created the Roman Missal app for the iPad and it became available for free in July in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin. He created it with his own money and mind — the Vatican, though approving, had no role in its initiation or creation. According to Rebecca Boyle at PopSci.com, via the AP, an audio version with suggestions for homilies will be available before too long. But it wasn’t his first Apple app. He also invented an iPhone app called the iBreviary, which contains the book of daily prayers used by priests. More than 200,000 people have downloaded it (AP/PhysOrg.com).

All of this is seen by both the Vatican and Father Padrini, who serves as an advisor, fittingly, to the Vatican on social communication, as a plus, both in reaching young people and logistically for priests, especially for those who travel much. Having the Bible, Missal, Breviary and more at the their finger tips, in one piece of technology, rather than several bound editions, is convenient.

So, we have iPadres on two continents. Doubtless, the American iPadre is one of those 200,000 downloaders. Both priests are doing creative, yet labor intensive, work in the Lord’s vineyard to bring the Faith to more people. It wasn’t by design, but I was happy to learn about both. Confession is, after all, good for the soul.

Now this is very interesting and shows events do come full circle. It seems there is a prominent protestant who is fighting what he calls the “Prosperity Gospel” — something he says certain evangelicals preach.

When I first read this, it reminded me of watching Pat Robertson some years ago as he pitched for donations. He would tell his viewers that if they donated to him (or, presumably, to their church) God would reward them, and often read letters from people who claimed that after having sent him money they could not afford, some good fortune happened upon them, Praise God!, and it more than made up for what they thought they couldn’t afford to donate.

My next thought was that it was about those preachers who live the high lifestyle and make no apology for it, that the Bible makes provision for prosperity be you clergy or lay.

It’s sort of the former, actually. Here is what J. Lee Grady told Christianity Today, via Matt Friedeman’s post on the American Family Association’s Rightly Concerned Blog.

J.Lee Grady didn’t wait for an economic recession to battle the prosperity gospel. He has been fighting it for years.

Grady is the editor of Charisma, the magazine that serves as a gathering tent for Pentecostal and charismatic Christians. Its columns and advertisements feature some of the most prominent names in the movement — and some of the most frequent targets of Grady’s criticism.

“I don’t want to lump all of those people and everything they teach under the umbrella of indulgences,” Grady says. “But if they’re doing manipulative things to get people to open their wallets, and twisting Scripture just like it was done during medieval times, we ought to challenge that. All we know to do is to get on the housetops and shout for reform.”

Other evangelicals have long criticized the teaching that God promises his followers wealth and happiness. But few within the movement have made their calls for repentance so public.

“Martin Luther had to say something, or they were going to keep selling indulgences. Now we have that going on in our midst,” Grady told Christianity Today in his Orlando office. “If someone says, ‘Send your $100 to be saved,’ that is selling indulgences, and there are people doing that on Trinity Broadcasting Network.” The TV corporation’s fundraising appeals have been among Grady’s most frequent targets.

A leading protestant mind calling out ministers for selling indulgences? Wow! That is one way to look at it. You never know where you may get some intellectual support for an argument. In the case of Catholic Apologetics, we may have an unusual ally in Mr. Grady.

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Pio Of Pietrelcina, commonly known as Padre Pio. Born Francesco Forgione in 1887 to a devout family in the village of Pietrelcina, Italy, in which devotion flourished among all of its residents, he knew as early as age five he wanted to give his life to God in the priestly ministry (read more at EWTN.com).

He entered the monastery as a young teenager, but only after his father moved to the United States to make enough money to pay for the private tutor he would need to bring his education up to the level where the monastery would accept him. This is an extraordinary act of love, not only to his son, but to God. So although much has been written about Padre Pio —his stigmata inspired hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to seek the sacraments from him and attend the Masses at which he presided — by believers and non, it his parents from whom I draw the lesson.

Both were illiterate (imagine being illiterate in your language, not to mention moving to a new country) but had memorized Scripture and Bible stories, taught them to their children, as well as the Rosary and all other prayers. Early on his parents instilled in the Faith in him and his siblings. Not only that, but they lost two children at birth — what devotion and love for God!

At Baptism, the parents are called to raise their child in the Faith; they are reminded that their child’s first teachers of the Faith. How many parents take this responsibility in more than a perfunctory way? Is it one more thing they slough off to Sunday school or even the Catholic school? I hope there is a renaissance of parenting in the Catholic tradition, where parents teach their children from the very earliest of ages how to pray and about the Church and Faith, who actively involve themselves in their children’s formation. Teaching rights and wrongs in a civil sense, which is what some parents reduced their moral responsibility to, is irrelevent without formation and a foundation.

Padre Pio heard God’s call through his formation from his parents.