“As iron sharpens iron, so man sharpens his fellow man.” (Proverbs 27:17).
The Joe Catholic blog is intended to provide Catholics and non-Catholics with resources to assist them in answering God's call to holiness. Our goal is to help people learn their faith, so they can live their faith and share their faith.
The Year of Faith was kicked with a Synod of the Bishops. As the participating bishops near the conclusion of the Synod, they explained that the New Evangelization “is not a question of finding new strategies as if the Gospel was to be spread like a market product, but rediscovering the ways in which individuals come close to Jesus.”
The Synod issued a strong challenge to the Church in North America:
The Bishops of the synodal Assembly invite you, Christians of North America, to respond with joy to the call to a new evangelization, while they look with gratitude at how your young Christian communities have borne generous fruits of faith, charity and mission. You need to recognize the many expressions of the present culture in the countries of your world which are today far from the Gospel. Conversion is necessary, from which is born a commitment that does not bring you out of your cultures, but in their midst to offer to all the light of faith and the power of life.
Below you will find a video overview of the synod. Look carefully at the image at the 33 second mark and you will notice our own Bishop Kevin Vann.
Pope Benedict XVI canonized seven new saints today, including St. Kateri, the young Native American who lived in the 17th Century and witnessed to the Mohawk Indians. St. Kateri was born near present day New York in 1656 and was a small pox survivor. I chose this image of her because the artist accurately depicted her with pox marks on her face due to the small pox she contracted as a child. Some accounts from her death report that the marks disappeared an hour after she died.
Kateri, known as the Lily of the Mohawks, is credited as a patron of ecology and the environment. According to documents written by the Jesuits in the region where she grew up, Kateri was known as a modest and shy girl, devoted to the Eucharist and the Crucifix. Her body is entombed
On December 19, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the miracle needed for Blessed Kateri's canonization. The recognized miracle occurred in 2006 when a young boy suffered a flesh-eating bacterium that infected a lip injury he received while playing basketball. His parents asked Blessed Kateri for her intercession for their son's healing. Subsequently, he was inexplicably healed.
Her canonization makes her the first Native American to be canonized.
Here is the actual canonization of St. Kateri and the other six new saints.
If you want to see a more comprehensive discussion about her life, I suggest this video from Salt and Light TV who, tonight, are also premiering a documentary film on St. Kateri:
In today's Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, "Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows." According to the Catholic Answers Forum, the phrase "be not afraid" appears over 100 times in the bible. When you include derivations of the phrase, some conclude that it appears 365 times.
Today we celebrate the feast of the North American martyrs, men who laid down their lives for their faith. They knew well that they may be killed for spreading the Gospel. They were not afraid. They lived their lives in accord with Christ's teaching: "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but after that can do no more." Most of us will never be called to lay down our lives in such dramatic fashion. We do face times of difficulty. When we encounter challenges in our everyday lives, we should remember that God is always with us. We have no need to be afraid. You can go to video commentary from the USCCB, to hear more about the Gospel.
John Paul the Great began by the speaking the words, "be not afraid." Below is a touching tribute to JP2 who lived his life as one who trusted that the Lord was always with him through it all:
This past week the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy (CCC) published a Catholic Voting Guide application that works on most smartphone platforms – Android, Apple and Windows. The app is FREE, non-partisan and written concisely so it can be easily read in preparation for voting. So you have some idea who the CCC is, its president is Father John Trigilio, co-author of Catholicism for Dummies. Father Trigilio appears regularly on Catholic Answers Live and is the long-time host of Web of Faith on EWTN. You can see an interview with Father Trigilio explaining the app on World Over Live HERE.
The app is organized into Six Vital Issues including Right to Life, Freedom of Religion, Sanctity of Marriage, Right to Own Private Property, Right to Access to Goods and War & Peace. The app is rooted in the teaching of the US Bishop's Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship and Cardinal Prefect, Josef Ratzinger's (now Pope Benedict) Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion.
For a more comprehensive review check out the one on CatholicMom. For a more complete explanation of the vital issues and how we are called to inform our decisions through our Catholic faith please view the interview with Cardinal Burke:
As we close out the first week of the Year of Faith, a thought occurred to me. Do we know what faith Pope Benedict is speaking of? In other words what do we believe? What are we supposed to believe? What is it we believe as Catholics?
The Vice Presidential Debate demonstrated a stark contrast in views of what the Catholic Church teaches about abortion and how that mixes with politics. Watch the video first and then review what the Catechism has to say about abortion.
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
2272 Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273 The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation [emphasis added]:
"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."
"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."
Biden's "profession that he is personally opposed to abortion while supporting its legalization fails to acknowledge the life-taking reality of abortion." (CNA) This mindset either suggests that one is lying or has a serious disconnect from reality. It would be like someone saying, I am opposed to enslaving people from Africa, but I would never think about imposing that view on anyone. How ridiculous does that sound? In this day and age, who would make such a statement and get away with it?
Ryan's answer about how his Catholic faith informs his precisely the approach Catholics should be taking. Now in all fairness, the Romney-Ryan position is not perfect. The Church teaches that abortion is wrong in all circumstance; there are no exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother. This may seem like a harsh position, but it is consistent. To hold a contrary view is contradictory and undermines the dignity of all life. We cannot determine that one life is more valuable than another.
When I first heard Biden's comments, I was reminded of St. Josemaria's statement in The Way (#353) about living a duplicitous life:
Have you ever bothered to think how absurd it is to leave one's Catholicism aside on entering a university, or a professional association, or a scholarly meeting, or Congress, as if you were checking your hat at the door?
Pope Benedict XVI opened the Year of Faith with a call to share the faith in our daily lives. Specifically, in his homily the Pope said, “People of faith are needed who, with their own lives, point out the way to the Promised Land and keep hope alive.” He went on to say that our faith must be informed by the truth of Catholic teaching. He explained that "the new evangelization [must] neither remain just an idea nor be lost in confusion, it needs to be built on a concrete and precise basis, and this basis is the documents of the Second Vatican Council”.
